Cajun and Creole Food

Although it is fashionable in America’s beau monde restaurants to spotlight seasonal ingredients purchased from local growers and small distributors, there were times and places in our nation’s history when relying on the goods and produce closest at hand was a matter of necessity, even survival. Take the Gulf Coast region of the United States, which for more than three hundred years has beckoned immigrants and inspired, if not demanded, ingenuity at the table. Although it was traversed by explorers in the sixteenth century, this vast area spanning the Gulf of Mexico and eventually known as the Louisiana Territories was not permanently settled by outsiders until 1699, when French colonists first touched its shores. Since then, peoples from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America have left their mark on the region’s history and culture and inspired not one, but two, original culinary traditions: the Creole cuisine of New Orleans and the Cajun food of the surrounding bayous and prairies.