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Straight from the roux bayou, a culinary memoir about how a centuries old Cajun and Creole secret―gumbo―has become one of the world’s most beloved dishes.
The product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo reflects the diversity of the people who cooked it up: French aristocrats, West Africans in bondage, Cajun refugees, German settlers, Native Americans―all had a hand in the pot. What is it about gumbo that continues to delight and nourish so many, in America and around the world?
A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother’s gumbo often got started with a chicken chased down in the yard. In Gumbo Life: A Journey Down the Roux Bayou, Wells shares his lifelong quest to explore gumbo’s roots and mysteries. He spends time with octogenarian chefs to make a gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; and observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged.
Gumbo Life, rendered in Wells’ affable prose, makes clear that gumbo is more than a dish: it’s an attitude, a way of seeing the world. This is a tasty culinary memoir―to be enjoyed like a simmering pot of gumbo.
This edition includes recipe additions as well as a story about the author’s quest for authentic Cajun Dark Roux, which involved a hunt for (thankfully scarce) bear lard.
"When Ken Wells was editor at the Wall Street Journal, he glanced round the newsroom and observed: ‘I’m the only one in here who knows how to skin a squirrel.’ There’s no recipe for squirrel gumbo in this mouthwatering culinary memoir, but there is a vivid account of Wells’ languid bayou childhood and the history and personalities who seasoned it. There could be no better guide to this unique American subculture than Bonnie’s boy from Bayou Black."―Geraldine Brooks, author of March and People of the Book
"Ken Wells was to the gumbo born. Enhancing that felicitous beginning, he has traveled the Gumbo Belt researching, recording, and―most importantly―savoring the myriad interpretations of the iconic Louisiana soup. He even has recipes, including two of my favorites. (I’m not telling which ones!) Like a dense, flavorful gumbo filled with tastes of the region, this is a book to savor."―Jessica Harris, author of High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America
"Ken Wells knows gumbo, and from whence it comes. And gumbo, and its sources, are profoundly tasty things to know."―Roy Blount Jr., author of Save Room for Pie
"A piquant history of gumbo… This is required reading for gumbo aficionados and addicts, and those who aspire to be."―Publishers Weekly
"Affectionate portrait of that favorite Cajun comfort food and the tradition from which it came. . . . [A] gently spun tale with a few recipes that foodies will want to test immediately. A tasty treat."―Kirkus Reviews
"Wells has meticulously traced [gumbo’s] influences, and he has visited a host of eateries to find every sort of variation on gumbo, from the most high-toned French Quarter restaurants to the celebrated historic precincts of Leah Chase’s iconic diner. . . . Anyone fondly recalling gumbo in its myriad guises will find plenty to savor here."―Booklist
Some Helpful Definitions
Map
Preface: Boy Drooling, Man Wondering
1. Roux Awakening
2. Academic Gumbo: It’s a Swamp Out There
3. Gumbo Gets Going: Hank, Ted Kennedy, and the
Great Wall of China
4. Gumbo Inc. and the Gumbo Identity Crisis
5. The Meaning of “T”- Man in the Land of a Zillion Chefs
6. Feasting Among the Poule d’Eau Cookers
7. Moby Gumbo
8. Ready, Set, Cook!
9. Creole Gets Its Cajun On
10. Gumbo Hunting in Treme
11. My Gumbo Life
12. The Glory of Gumbo’s Pantry
13. Gumbo as Destiny
14. Serpents on the Roux Bayou
15. Bayou Black Today
16. The Gumbo Highway and Gumbo Life Converge
Recipes
Acknowledgments
Notes on Sources
Bibliography and Further Reading
Index