Taste of America: Cajun and Creole


Creole and Cajun cooking are two of the country's oldest cuisines. Here are some of the most important dates in their delicious—and intertwined—history:

Pre-Columbian Times

Indigenous tribes such as the Choctaw, Atakapa, and Houmas hunt, fish, farm, and trade in the area. "When Columbus sailed to America, Native Americans had been living in Louisiana for more than 3,500 years," John D. Folse writes in The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine. Many of the ingredients used then remain popular in Louisiana today, including deer, alligator, ducks, frogs, shrimp, turtles, rabbit, crawfish, drum, croakers, redfish, and trout. The Natchez preserved oysters by smoking them, according to Folse. They gathered wild berries, pecans, walnuts, and other nuts, and harvested wild rice. The tribes introduced settlers to these ingredients, as well as corn and cornmeal, beans, squash, and indigenous herbs, such as filé powder (ground sassafras leaves), now a key ingredient in gumbo.


1682: France Claims Louisiana
René-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, sailed down the Mississippi to its mouth, erected a cross, and claimed the territory for Louis XIV of France. By the end of the 17th century, the first French colonists had begun to settle on the banks of the Mississippi, bringing with them the cooking style of their mother country. However, their traditional ingredients were often not available, so they improvised. Take, for instance, the French dish bouillabaisse made with a Mediterranean rascasse fish. That wasn't available, but there were crabs, red snapper, pompano, and shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn't long before innovative cooks learned to make a fish stew using local ingredients.

The Creole kitchen was inspired by the French grande cuisine, in which there was a subtle blending of ingredients, elaborate sauces, and sophisticated menus. This complexity can be still be seen in restaurants and homes in and around New Orleans: A menu might include shrimp rémoulade or Creole gumbo, followed by trout meunière or chicken Clemenceau, and a dessert such as pot de crème and a demi-tasse of café brûlot.


1717: First African slaves brought to Louisiana
In 1717, John Law received a charter to develop the colony. During this time, slaves were brought to work on sugar and cotton plantations. Numerous Cajun and Creole techniques and ingredients originated with these slaves, including the generous use of hot peppers, yams, greens, black-eyed peas, melons, and coffee. "Though slave owners may have tried to erase African cultural influences, the cooks inevitably left an indelible mark on the palates of their captors," writes Folse. "Louisiana cuisine descended from the many cultures that settled the state, with West Africa contributing significantly to the regional flavors prevalent in Louisiana today." One of the most notable influences from Africa is okra and its use as a thickener in stew (the word "gumbo" stems from an African word for okra).

1720: German indentured agricultural servants begin to arrive
As New Orleans became a bustling port, immigrants from Germany, Italy, and elsewhere flooded into the city and surrounding areas. All left a mark on Cajun and Creole cuisine. For example, Gumbo Z'herbes can be traced to a German custom of making a dish with seven different greens for Maundy Thursday, according to Folse.

1762: Spanish rule begins
In 1762, France ceded to Spain all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. When the Spanish came to rule the Louisiana colony, they added their own repertoire of flavors and cooking style. Jambalaya, a rice-based dish prepared by both the Creoles and the Acadians, is similar to the Spanish paella. French and Spanish colonists and their descendants became known as the Creoles.

1765: First official Acadian settlements
The word "Cajun" comes from Acadia, the French name for an area around what is now Nova Scotia that was claimed by both England and France for over three centuries. Many Acadians migrated or were deported to French colonies, including Louisiana. According to Folse, undocumented accounts trace the first Acadian arrivals in Louisiana to 1755, but the first official settlements were founded in 1765.

The Cajuns who settled in Louisiana's marshlands were quick to adapt their cooking repertoire to include the wealth of local game and seafood—fish, oysters, shrimp, and crabs from the Gulf of Mexico and its bays, as well as crawfish, all of which found their way into their pots of gumbo and stews. "Their dishes were derived from the pots of the native Indians, French, English, Germans, New Englanders, Irish, Scottish, and Africans," writes Folse.

A day in the life of the Cajuns might include a breakfast of couche-chouche (fried cornmeal topped with either a fried egg or drizzled with pure cane syrup), a lunch of fresh pork sausage tucked into slices of French bread, and a supper of chicken fricassee served over rice and vegetables like maque choux (stewed corn). Wild ducks and other game from the wetlands provided the creative cooks with yet more ingredients with which to make fricassees and jambalayas. Cajun charcuterie includes such things as smoked sausages (andouille and chaurice) and fresh sausages (boudin), cracklings (fried pork fat), hogshead cheese, chaudin (stuffed pig's stomach), and stuffed pork chops.


1803: Louisiana Purchase
Although Louisiana officially becomes part of the United States, many of its residents still consider it almost a separate country and think of themselves as first and foremost Cajun or Creole.

1840: Antoine's restaurant opens
This legendary restaurant (antoines.com) claims to be the country's oldest family-run restaurant, as well as the birthplace of some of Louisiana's most famous dishes, including oysters Rockefeller and eggs Sardou. Commander's Palace followed in 1880 and Galatoire's in 1905. Like Antoine's, these fine-dining establishments help shape a thriving restaurant scene in New Orleans.

1885: Lafcadio Hearn's La Cuisine Creole published
Now republished as Lafcadio Hearn's Creole Cook Book, this is the first Creole cookbook ever published and contains recipes, household tips, such as how to make yeast, and details about the life of Creoles in the 1800s.


1906: Salvatore Lupo opens Central Grocery in New Orleans
One of thousands of Sicilian immigrants to Louisiana, Lupo is credited with creating the famous muffuletta sandwich: round loaves of Italian bread topped with ham, salami, cheese, and a signature olive salad.

1945: Leah Chase marries Dooky Chase, Jr.
After marrying, Leah Chase began working at Dooky Chase restaurant. Founded by Dooky Chase, Jr.'s parents, the eatery was one of the first black-owned and-operated restaurants in New Orleans and was an important gathering place during the time of the civil rights movement. Chase's promotion of the cooking of South Louisiana earned her the title the Queen of Creole Cuisine. (Learn more about Leah Chase and get her Mardi Gras menu.)

1959: Bam! Emeril Lagasse is born
Lagasse was born in Massachusetts and was named executive chef of Commander's Palace in New Orleans in 1983. He opened his own restaurant, Emeril's, in the French Quarter in 1990 and first appeared on the Food Network in 1993.

1971: "I gar-on-tee!" enters the lexicon
Cajun cook and humorist Justin Wilson first appeared on local TV in 1971 and would soon become the face of Cajun culture and cuisine with his PBS cooking shows, late-night TV appearances, and various cookbooks.

1979: Paul Prudhomme and his wife open K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen
"Cajun and Creole cooking had started to become popular outside Louisiana in the 1970s but reached a peak in the 1980s," writes Kathleen Collins in the forthcoming book Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows (New York: Continuum, 2009). "Well-respected chef Paul Prudhomme created a watershed blackened redfish at his now legendary K-Paul's restaurant in 1980, creating not only a potential threat to the fish species, but the start of a powerful Cajun cooking trend. All manner of foods were subject to being blackened or étouféed, and gumbo and jambalaya became household words nationwide."

1995: Lousiana's "Culinary Ambassador" adds Cajun and Creole to the curriculum
The John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, which began offering classes for credit in 1995, is "dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Louisiana's rich culinary heritage" and teaches students the history of—and how to make—Cajun and Creole classics such as pralines and jambalaya.


August 2005: Hurricane Katrina decimates New Orleans
In the aftermath of Katrina, home cooks lost family recipe collections and many restaurants shut down for good.

Late 2005 to Present: Revival of Cajun and Creole
In the days, weeks, and now years since Katrina, restaurant chefs, farmers' market vendors, and home cooks have battled to keep Cajun and Creole cuisine alive and vibrant. Award-winning restaurants like Donald Link's Cochon and John Besh's Restaurant August prove that the Louisiana restaurant scene is far from over. Efforts to preserve Cajun and Creole food, ingredients, and culture are underway by organizations such as Southern Food & Beverage Museum, the Southern Foodways Alliance, Slow Food New Orleans, and the Crescent City Farmers Market. In addition, the book Cooking Up a Storm pulls together 225 recipes gathered by The Times Picayune of New Orleans, which became a swapping place for lost recipes after the hurricane.

Additional reporting for timeline by Megan O. Steintrager