Chef Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen

Here for the first time, the famous food of Louisiana is presented in a cookbook written by a great creative chef who is himself world-famous. The extraordinary Cajun and Creole cooking of South Louisiana, a cornerstone of Southern cooking, has roots going back over two hundred years, and today it is the one really vital, growing regional cuisine in America. No one is more responsible than Paul Prudhomme for preserving and expanding the Louisiana tradition, which he inherited from his own Cajun background.

Chef Prudhomme’s incredibly good food has brought people from all over America and the world to his restaurant, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, in New Orleans, a landmark for authentic Louisiana cooking. To set down his recipes for home cooks, however, he did not work in the restaurant. In a small test kitchen, equipped with a home-size stove and utensils normal for a home kitchen, he retested every recipe two and three times to get exactly the results he wanted. Logical though this is, it was an unprecedented way for a chef to write a cookbook. But Paul Prudhomme started cooking in his mother’s kitchen when he was a youngster. To him, the difference between home and restaurant procedures is obvious and had to be taken into account.

So here, in explicit detail, are recipes for the great traditional dishes—from classic gumbo recipes to unforgettable jambalayas, Shrimp Creole, Turtle Soup, Cajun "Popcorn," Crawfish Etouffee, Pecan Pie, and dozens more—each refined by the skill and genius of Chef Prudhomme so that they are at once authentic and modern in their methods.

This landmark chef cookbook, Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen is also full of surprises, for he is unique in the way he has enlarged the repertoire of Cajun and Creole food, creating new dishes and variations within the old traditions. Seafood Stuffed Zucchini with Seafood Cream Sauce, Panted Chicken and Fettucini, Veal and Oyster Crepes, Artichoke Prudhomme—these and many others are newly conceived recipes, but they could have been created only by a Louisiana cook. The most famous of Paul Prudhomme’s original recipes is Blackened Redfish, a daringly simple dish of fiery Cajun flavor that is often singled out by food writers as an example of the best of new American regional cooking.

For Louisianians and for cooks everywhere in the country, this is the most exciting cookbook to be published in many years.

Inside this classic Cajun cookbook, you’ll master the dishes that made Chef Paul Prudhomme a legend:

• Louisiana Cooking: Learn the secrets to the vital, growing regional cuisine of America, from a chef who inherited the tradition from his own Cajun background.
• Restaurant-Quality Recipes for Home Cooks: Every recipe was retested multiple times in a home-size test kitchen, ensuring you can replicate his world-famous food with the stove and utensils you already own.
• Famous New Orleans Recipes: Master the great traditional dishes, including unforgettable jambalayas, Shrimp Creole, Turtle Soup, and dozens more refined by Chef Prudhomme’s skill and genius.
• The Original Blackened Redfish: Discover the daringly simple, fiery Cajun recipe that food writers singled out as the best of new American regional cooking.