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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2015 Just Throw it in the Pot! The ulturC al Geography of Hidden Landscapes and Masked Performances in South Louisiana Gumbo Cooking Corey David Hotard Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Hotard, Corey David, "Just Throw it in the Pot! The ulturC al Geography of Hidden Landscapes and Masked Performances in South Louisiana Gumbo Cooking" (2015). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1493. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1493 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. JUST THROW IT IN THE POT! THE CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF HIDDEN LANDSCAPES AND MASKED PERFORMANCES IN SOUTH LOUISIANA GUMBO COOKING A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Geography and Anthropology by Corey David Hotard BA, Louisiana State University, 1999 MA, Louisiana State University, 2003 December 2015 Dedicated to those who left before me: Dr. Thomas Eubanks, Lester Landry, Dr. Miles Richardson, Augie Fragala and Jamie Lapeyrouse Cox ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a city to complete a dissertation! The first people that deserve acknowledgements are definitely my parents. They have supported me emotionally, financially, and maybe begrudgingly through this whole process. I have only gotten to this point because of them. Therefore Marnell Faith Lapeyrouse, Charles David Hotard, and James Henry Lapeyrouse, thank you. I need to especially thank my mother, without her strength there is no way I would have completed this project. When I wanted to quit, she said no, when I cried, she listened, when I felt lost and wanted to end it all, she was encouraging and reminded me I was not alone. Momma, thank you! The next group of people that need to be thanked are my academic family. Dr. Kent Mathewson was the first person to spark my interest in the geography of food with a graduate seminar I took under his tutelage when I was completing my master's and he agreed to take me on as a PhD student. Thanks Dr. Mathewson! Dr. Ruth Bowman, opened my mind and allowed me to take my research to avenues I never knew it could go. Dr. Helen Regis has followed me the longest on this journey. She has always been there to give me a better understanding of Louisiana and its Creole cultures while always offering me her opinion. Dr. Carolyn Ware's enthusiasm and knowledge of folklore has been a great aid. I extend thanks to all of you! My understanding of the geographic discipline and fieldwork started with Dr. Dydia DeLyser who never closed her door to my questions and always had an article in hand, thank you! Of course I have to thank all of my fellow graduate students who helped keep me grounded. Thanks to Rachel Watson, Stephanie Crider, E. Arnold Modlin, Katherine Renken, Theresa Wilson, Cory Sills, Nicki Smith, Katherine Parys, Paul Watts, Gentry Hanks, Amanda Evans, Jörn Seemann, and Jenny Hay. I cannot express how much all of you mean to me and iii how you helped my sanity in this process. The person that has helped me the most is Katie Berchak-Irby. Katie is my grad school rock and I have undying loyalty to her as a friend, thanks for helping me with teaching and for the coffee/lunches you paid for when I was unemployed. I also want to acknowledge my step sister Claudette Robey who edited this dissertation. To Dr. Shane Bernard and the McIlhenny Company who allowed access to their archives which informed this dissertation, a sincere thank you. I also want to thank Dr. Rachel Hall who tolerated me in my first performance studies class which I didn't want to take. Thank you to the Greater New Iberia Chamber of Commerce for allowing me to do this study and letting me attend your meetings. Thanks to my friends and coworkers, who although probably got tired of me talking about gumbo allowed me to work through my academic issues. Thank you Chasity Hooks, Mystie Whitman, Tara Guy, Justin Benoit, April Benoit, Adrienne Garber, Matt Keller, Erika Benoit, and William Jones. I want to thank all the people who participated in this study. Thank you for allowing me into your work, home, or cooking booth at a gumbo competition. Thanks for answering my questions and giving me a greater insight into not only gumbo but the geography of Louisiana. Lastly, Dr. Miles Richardson was the original advisor on this project who passed away. I want to thank him for initially listening to me, for encouraging me to go forward with this inquiry, and reminding me of the importance of performance. He never let me forget that this study was always about the culture and never, ever about me! He also wouldn't let me quit. Finally, I want to thank him for reminding me to always write in the active voice, as often as I could. Miles, enjoy this read along with Charlene Richard and Hank Williams. Guys, this was not just a project for me, this was my life. You have all made this endeavor possible. Thank you, seriously, thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii ABSTRACT x CHAPTER 1. PRESENTING GUMBO 1 Introduction: Gumbo Season Begins 1 Cultural Landscapes and Gumbo 4 A Prologue: The GIS of Gumbo 6 Previous Studies of Louisiana Foodways 10 Ethnicity and Race in Louisiana 13 Conclusion 15 CHAPTER 2. OTHER CHARACTERS - THE GEOGRAPHIES OF FOOD AND PERFORMANCE 18 Introduction 18 Geography of Food 20 Conclusion 36 CHAPTER 3. THE CULTURAL AND CULINARY HISTORY OF SOUTH LOUISIANA 38 Introduction: The Creole Cajun, What's in a Name? 38 A Brief History of South Louisiana: The Making of a Region 41 Conclusion: Developing a Louisiana Creole/"Cajun" Cuisine 55 CHAPTER 4. GUMBO - THE P(L)OT THICKENS 60 Introduction: Categorizing Gumbo - A Debate 60 The Columbian Exchange 63 Gumbo 65 Gumbo Cognate Dishes 75 Conclusion 88 CHAPTER 5. GUMBO IN CONTEXT - COOKING GUMBO IN SOUTH LOUISIANA 91 Introduction: The Mask of Gumbo 91 Fieldwork: Methodology, Demographics, and The World Championship Gumbo Cook-Off .............................................................................................. 94 Coding and Codes: Analyzing Gumbo .................................................................. 105 v Conclusion 130 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION - MASKED, HIDDEN, AND CONNECTED GUMBO LANDSCAPES 132 Introduction: Gumbo Realities 132 Hidden Landscapes/Masked Performances 136 Where Does Geography go from Here: Future Research 140 Conclusion 143 REFERENCES CITED 146 APPENDIX A: COOKBOOKS USED FOR RECIPE ANALYSIS 167 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT CODES AND SUB CODES 168 VITA 170 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4-1: Categories of gumbo based on frequency of recipes. 71 Table 4-2: Frequency of thickeners in cookbook gumbo recipes. 72 Table 4-3: Gumbo cooking times by category. 73 Table 5-1: Gumbo categories and percentage of recipes from interviews. 106 Table 5-2: Number of times vegetables were mentioned in interview recipes. 110 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Physical geography regions of Acadiana. 7 Figure 2: Mapped gumbos of the Acadiana Region. 8 Figure 3: GIS determined gumbo cooking regions of Acadiana. 9 Figure 4: Participants stirring gumbo at the 2011 World Championship Gumbo Cook- Off New Iberia, La. 17 Figure 5: The Acadiana Parishes of south Louisiana. 41 Figure 6: September 2012 meeting of the World Championship Gumbo Cook-Off Committee. 60 Figure 7: Roux being cooked for a Louisiana gumbo. 66 Figure 8: A pot of chicken sausage gumbo. 68 Figure 9: Photo taken on October 21, 2012; A restaurant in New Iberia, Louisiana letting customers know the temperature is right for gumbo. 74 Figure 10: Chicken Fricassee being cooked for Creole Culture Day at Vermillionville Lafayette, Louisiana, June 10, 2012. 85 Figure 11: Fry Bread being cooked at Native American Culture Day, Vermillionville, Lafayette, Louisiana, September 21, 2013. 87 Figure 12: A map of gumbo cognate dishes found during this research. 90 Figure 13: Percentages of where interviews took place. 96 Figure 14: Parishes represented in the recipes/people for this project. 98 Figure 15: Louisiana cities/towns where interviews took place or interviewees were from. 99 Figure 16: Bouligny Plaza in New Iberia on a normal day 101 Figure 17: Bouligny Plaza on the Sunday of the 2012 WCGC competition 102 viii Figure 18: A scene from 2011s WCGC them with elements of gumbo ingredients, Mardi Gras, and southwest Louisiana rural culture while making reference to the 60s counterculture theme. 103 Figure 19: A "Swamp People" skit incorporating a booth's decoration, 2012 WCGC. 104 Figure 20: Types of Seasonings in gumbo recipes from interviews. 111 Figure 21: "Cajun Roux Spoons" hanging in a cook's home kitchen. 114 Figure 22: Cast aluminum and cast iron pots being used to cook gumbo at the 2012 WCGC. 115 Figure 23: Men cooking in the back of a booth at the 2012 WCGC. 118 Figure 24: Women getting ready to serve at the front of a booth at the 2011 WCGC. 118 Figure 25: Females and males pre-chopping ingredients at the 2010 WCGC. 119 Figure 26: A trophy display for a booth at the 2011 WCGC.

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