"Creole" news and stories

New Orleans is America's original foodie mecca. In the 1700s, there was already a 400 vendor farmers' market in the center of town (on the site of the current French Market). By the 1800s, cookbooks were being published here long before the rest of America, like the local newspaper's anthology recently reprinted as 'The Times-Picayune's Creole Cook-book'. "Our cuisine is 25% French, 25% Spanish and 50% African – the French and Spanish influenced the food, but it was the Africans who largely cooked it," explains Tom Fitzmorris, author of "Hungry Town: A Culinary History of New Orleans", "It's a creole cuisine in every sense of the word." (Creole is derived from the Spanish criollo or 'native')

Several different factors influenced the eclectic tastes of New Orleans. Firstly, it was a port city throbbing with newcomers from across the world. "People don't realize that in the 18th and 19th centuries, we had more immigrants coming through our port than they did in New York," food guru Poppy Tooker explains. Those new arrivals couldn't scatter into self-defined ethnic enclaves as they did in Chicago or San Francisco either. "Look at our geography, wedged between [Lake] Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river, there's not a lot of room to expand," notes Kelly Hamilton, who leads food tours around the city. Settlers clubbed together to cook and so produced hybrids of the foods they'd eaten back home.

Read our "only in New Orleans" list after the jump...

Celebrated New Orleans chef John Besh has not one, but two upcoming TV shows. The first, Inedible to Incredible, will be on TLC starting in mid June. Besh smartly describes it as the What Not to Wear of the food world.

"It's people who mean well about food but eat terribly and no one has the heart to tell them," explains Besh to Slashfood. "I go in and help them. One reason I really wanted to do the show is because I can attract a huge audience and teach people about food. Unfortunately today there are a lot of people who rely too much on overly processed food. Hopefully I can introduce them to farmers' markets, alternatives in the supermarkets and offer them some cooking tips.

The second show will be on PBS and is based on -- and shares the title of -- his 2009 cookbook, My New Orleans. The series will be a celebration of the wonderfully rich New Orleans culinary heritage. Besh is following in the footsteps of another local chef made good -- Paul Prudhomme -- and even checked with the big man to make sure he was OK with him doing the show before he took up the mantle.

• Readers helped track down recipes for lunch tongue and Sarah Bernhardt cake in 2009, but outstanding fugitive recipes include velvet crab soup, lobster Roberto, wet spaghetti, mint roses and sweet potato pone.
• The Krewe of Argus has selected Rachael Ray as grand marshal of its Mardi Gras parade.
• The city's Mirliton Man, who set up to save heritage varieties of Louisiana's beloved alligator pear, reports he has identified eight traditional varieties and distributed seeds across the Southeast.
• Chicken is the starring player in three Creole dishes perfectly suited for cold weather.

Photo: Amazon.com

'New Orleans Classic Gumbos & Soups'
Recipes from Favorite Restaurants
Text and Photographs by Kit Wohl
Pelican Publishing -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

The best Creole-Cajun dishes are oft found in Louisiana: gumbos bursting with fresh seafood, sausages and chicken slopped together with rice, soups with an intense depth of flavor -- all representing comfort food at its best. "New Orleans Classic Gumbos and Soups" showcases some of the best recipes from eateries around the region and brings them to home cooks in a non-intimidating approach.

Recipes like Tulane Chicken Andouille Gumbo and Red Bean and Sausage soup will keep you coming back to this book for the ultimate weekend dinners. Be sure to buy the freshest ingredients possible, especially seafood: It plays a key role in the outcome of dishes, and makes the extra effort well worth it.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Jambalaya. Photo: madaise, Flickr

Red Lobster this summer became the latest fast-casual chain to dip into the bayou for a promotional menu item, reflecting a mainstreaming of Louisiana flavors many experts attribute to the continuing diasporas of chefs displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Red Lobster, which has introduced many American landlubbers to seafood through its 600-plus locations, recently debuted a "New Orleans jambalaya," made with shrimp, sausage and "Creole seasonings." Earlier this year, O'Charley's tested a Cajun-spiced shrimp salad, while Chili's tried to lure customers by slashing the price of its Cajun chicken pasta. And Uno Chicago Grill set its sights south with a NOLA-beholden menu featuring a shrimp po' boy, bananas Foster and an andouille-sausage flatbread.

"Cajun-Creole is one of the most important regional cuisines in America, and more and more people are more educated about it than they've ever been," says Randy Cheramie, associate dean at Nicholls State University's John Folse Culinary Institute in Thibodaux, La.