Louisiana, We're Really Cookin' Cajun Larrys Micbanä, press secretary, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Baton Rouge, LA The Cajun phenomenon is the marke- many of the melting pot influences of ter's dream come true. It has been an New Orleans with its French, Spanish, American classic: the rags-to-riches and African heritage. success story. Cajun is usually referred to as The success of Louisiana Cajun's "poor country folks" fare, derived marketing story has been part happy from the trapping, hunting, fishing, accident, part the cooking and pro- and small farming legacy of its fore- motional talents of Paul bears. Creole is a more sophisticated Prudhomme—and since his initial offering and usually includes some breakthrough, the cooking and type of tomato portion. It results from showmanship of numerous other the cooking styles of the commingled Louisiana chefs—part awareness by wealthy French and Spanish in New private and government leaders of a Orleans in the pre-Cajun era in Loui- good business opportunity, and part siana. Both include the "holy trinity" recognition and appreciation by those of finely chopped onions, celery, and outside Louisiana's borders of a herit- green peppers. age and cooking unique to America: Many have as their base stock the Cajun food, as cooked by Cajuns, is "roux." A roux is a thickening agent delicious. without which many Cajun/Creole dishes would be little more than a Origin of Louisiana Food soup. Cajun cook Alton Pitre calls the roux a "controlled burning of flour Prudhomme didn't start Cajun cook- and oil—equal parts of both." ing, of course. That began 225 years Although simple in concept, the roux ago in the swamps and bayous of is critical and if not stirred constantly south Louisiana as a small colony of and attended to with precision, it exiled French families from Nova Sco- becomes a charred mess in the bot- tia (then Acadia) known as tom, of the skillet. To the base ingre- Acadians—colloquially, Cajuns— dients add wild game, the vast array struggled to make a new life in a of freshwater and marine seafood, strange land. But Prudhomme, seasonings, and vegetables available directly descended from that group, in Louisiana, and rice. The resuk is did begin, and kept fueling, the mad- Cajun food in its many cap media blitz and promotional manifestations. tours that catapulted Cajun to the forefront as the preeminent cooking aaze of this decade. Cajun Chef Prudhomme Starts Craze Prudhomme consistently refers to his food as "Louisiana food" Although Prudhomme ticks off a ser- Although Louisiana food is best ies of events in the late 1970's and known as Cajun, it also includes its early 1980's as significant along the big-city first cousin, Creole, which has way to making Cajun a household 286 I Marketing U.S. ^Hculture word, for him it started years earlier. For 12 years Prudhomme tramped Other Chefs Promote Cajun through the kitchens of America's res- Cooking taurants. Along the way, he soaked up Part of Louisiana's Cajun heritage is the food types, cooking styles, and that cooking is not confined to the food industry hype that were all to female in the household. Many Cajun figure in what today is a multimillion- men cook and cook well, and serve dollar food industry business for him- as role models for their sons, handing self and his Louisiana Cajun down the heritage through the gener- contemporaries. ations. When Prudhomme broke In 1982, he started his own line of through the State's boundaries, many produrts, "Cajun Magic." In 1983, he excellent Cajun cooks and chefs were did blackened redfish for New York waiting for the opportunity to show Times food critic Craig Claibome's their culinary art. birthday party. There was a huge The common denominator of the media turnout. Several chefs were most successful chefs is a willingness cooking for the affair, but "All of a to take their cooking to the public. As sudden this smell .started coming roving ambassadors for the ta.ste of from my side of the room. People Cajun they have covered the globe in started tasting blackened redfish and the 1980's. the whole attitude changed. It was the hit of the party." Paul Prudhomme didn 't start Cajun cooking, but, as a descendent of those that did some 225 years ago, he has helped catapult Cajun to the forefront as the preeminent cooking craze of this decade. (Restaurants & Institutions Magazine) ihvtnoHng Agricultural Products 287 chef Buster Ambrosia was asked by dozen Louisiana food manufacturers the Louisiana Department of Agricul- who, according to Glen Senk, operat- ture to cook for the 1986 annual ing vice president of Bloomingdale's, meeting of the Lions Club Interna- "otherwise would never have had the tional in Taiwan. "We cooked for chance to reach this type of major thousands of people—Lions Clubs national market." from all over Europe, the Middle East, Far East, you name it. During our stay Cookbooks a Marketing Tool we prepared a total of 135 dishes. We took more than 2,000 pounds of spi- While personal appearances got the ces, seasonings, sauces, and other fledgling Cajun food industry off the ingredients as well as our crawfish, ground, cookbooks are probably the crabmeat, and red snapper and added single largest marketing factor keep- them to some of the seafood they had ing the food style before the public. over there. We introduced a cuisine Almost all of Louisiana's celebrity to people from all over the world in chefs have branched out into the that one spot. People had heard a lot cookbook business and acknowledge about it, but they had never had a that selling cookbooks is a major bus- chance to taste it." iness enterprise. Currently scores of Louisiana chefs In January 1988, one Baton Rouge are making personal appearances bookstore had 53 Louisiana cook- aaoss the country and around the books, many in their ñfth or more world. John Poise is another of Loui- printing. Some were multiple efforts siana's premier celebrity chefs who by a single chef Wilson had four; was permitted to open the only Amer- Prudhomme, two. Chef Paul Prud- ican restaurant in Moscow during the bomme's Louisiana Kitcbenwâs in its 1988 Reagan-Gorbachev summit talks 50th printing. The book has won a and recently started a line of prepared number of major awards in the cook- Cajun products tailored to the Euro- ing field and since its publication in pean market. One of Poise's first big 1984 has sold more than 700,000 breaks came in 1985 when he was copies. Three versions of "River invited to Hollywood by 20th Century Road," the No. 1 best selling com- Pox to cook for a party for Cybill munity cookbook in the country pub- Shepherd. Since then, he has done lished since 1959 by the Baton Rouge additional Shepherd-instigated craw- Junior League, were available, but fish cookouts for some of Holly- most were a compilation of the cook- wood's biggest names. "And while ing expertise and recipes of a single we're cooking we also give them a lit- chef tle Cajun and Creole culture and his- Cookbook sales not only reach the toiy lesson.'* homemaker/cook, family, and One of the largest gatherings of friends, but also spawn media book Louisiana chefs to promote Cajun was reviews. Prudhomme says, "There at Bloomingdale's flagship store in was a span of about 3 years when it Manhattan during June and July, 1986. seemed like every writer who came Prudhomme, Poise, and seven other to my restaurant or wrote about my Louisiana chefs made personal book tried to write a better article appearances in a kickoff event which about it than the guy before him." included much of the New York media. Free Media Exposure The 2-month promotion, spon- sored by the Louisiana Department of Aside from Wilson's appearances on Agriculture, featured some three PBS, cookbooks, and media accounts 288 I Marketing U.S. Agriculture One of the greatest marketers of Louisiana Cajun is Justin Wilson. In his folksy Cajun country dialect in Tangipahoa Parish, Wilson reaches across America each week on public television with his show "Justin Wilson's Louisiana Cookin' Outdoors. "(WLPBTV, Baton Rouge, LA) of personal appearances, countless Claibome and Dan Rather to thou- other print and air time has been sands of pieces in local media in the given to Cajun in the 1980's. As Prud- farthest reaches of America. homme points out, people hurried to write or broadcast the cutest, most Food Shows elearifying, best quotable quote extolling the virtues of Cajun. The While Louisiana chefs have been the reams of material range from Craig most visible component of Cajun, Promoting Agricultural Products I 289 many behind-the-scenes efforts insure crowds in Los Angeles and San that Cajun continues to have staying Francisco. power and makes the transition from Two of the top ten pop albums of temporary fad to permanent trend. 1987 featured a new musical hybrid Among these has been the work of fijsing basic rock with authentic the marketing staff of the Louisiana Cajun/Creole music. "The Lonesome Department of Agriculture. Aside Jubilee" album by John Cougar Mel- from hosting media promotional lencamp features accordion and fid- events, the marketing specialists have dle on each track. And Paul Simon's attended some 50 food shows all over Grammy-award winning pop album the world in the 1980's selling Louisi- "Graceland" featured two Zydeco ana Cajun. songs. The major food buying decisions Jimmy Bulliard, Sr., founder of by the large restaurant and super- Cajun Chef Produas in St.