When I was growing up, my mother made gumbo every week, usually twice—chicken-filé gumbo on Wednesdays and seafood-okra gumbo on Fridays. Her special touch was sautéeing the okra before adding it to the pot, thereby avoiding the texture problems some people have.

The great truth about gumbo is that no two chefs make it alike. Anybody who tells you that there’s only one right way to make gumbo is nuts. A few points about my version: not all recipes for seafood gumbo call for making a