FishingBanter - View Single Post

**Conan The Librarian** · December 13th, 2007, 07:43 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

wrote:

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:49:32 -0600, Conan The Librarian
wrote:

Yes, really. And yet she was still credited with making French
cuisine popular. (Just like Prudhomme was with Cajun food.)

FWIW, it was probably more to do with Justin Wilson than Prudhomme as
Prudhomme isn't really a "Cajun" chef, he's more of a Creole chef (he
got his start at Commander's), and his "blackened" redfish is neither
Creole or Cajun, but a happy accident.

His formal training may have been Creole rather than Cajun, (and I
daresay the distinction is lost on most folks), but he helped
"mainstream" (gawd I hate using nouns as verbs) ingredients and cooking
techniques from both cuisines.

I see Wilson as a great self-promoter, but don't really see any
lasting impact from him (except maybe his cute "cajunisms").

Hmmm ... do you think a cookbook might be a good place to look for
that sort of information?

No, I don't. I prefer to see and sample dishes and go from there,
whatever the cuisine. But I also realize that some have _no_ access to
trying certain things,

I dunno about you, but that was my assumption on getting a request
from a Welshman for Cajun recipes. :-)

and so, if you or they do need to use a cookbook
for a general sense of what ingredients are used, that's fine. But I'd
offer that attempting to use _recipes_ from a cookbook will not produce
"true" Cajun or Creole food.

Of course. Attempting to cook using recipes from *any* regional
cuisine isn't likely to produce "true" anything. But sometimes the cook
doesn't show up, and I'm too tuckered out after a long day at work to
jet off to New Orleans. Sadly, then I just have to struggle by making
up something from a cookbook.

Chuck Vance (what's a poor boy to do?)