Excerpts from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen book
“The ingredients in Cajun food have always depended on what you could get, so it changed depending on where you were. If you lived near New Orleans or the coast, you used seafood. But where we lived, there was no salt water and no transportation to reach it, so we had crawfish, which live in sweet water; and we had an endless supply of game, and there was chicken, pork, beef and all kinds of vegetables. Cajuns still make use of the plentiful crawfish, as well as chicken and pork (which is frequently smoked) and seasonal game. Filé powder, parsley, bay leaves, cayenne and black peppers and a variety of other hot peppers are the primary seasonings. Rice, an abundant Louisiana crop, is a staple of Cajun cooking.
“What's the difference between Cajun and Creole cooking?
‘Cajun and Creole cuisines share many similarities. Both are Louisiana born, with French roots. But Cajun is very old, French country cooking—a simple, hearty’ variety of foods. Cajun food began in Southern France, moved on to Nova Scotia and then came to Louisiana. The Acadians adapted their dishes to use ingredients that grew wild in the area—bay leaves from the laurel tree, filé powder from the sassafras tree and an abundance of different peppers such as cayenne, Tabasco peppers, banana peppers and bird's-eye peppers that grow wild in South Louisiana—learning their uses from the native Indians.
“The evolution of Creole cooking, just like Cajun, has depended heavily on whatever foods have been available. But Creole food, unlike Cajun, began in New Orleans and is a mixture of the traditions of French, Spanish, Italian, American Indian, African and other ethnic groups.’ The cooks for the different governmental households were black and would have to change their style of cooking for each government in power. Over a period of time, the cooks learned how to cook for a variety of nationalities, and they incorporated their own spicy, home-style way of cooking into the different cuisines of their employers. This is the way Creole food was created. Creole cooking is more sophisticated and complex than Cajun cooking—it's city cooking.”
Influences on Creole cuisine were in the heat of the peppers, the wide usage of citrus juice marinades, the daily staple food of rice, and the introduction of beans. Tomatoes were also used extensively. Pasta and tomato sauces were introduced in 1815 to 1925 from Italian and Greek immigrants. Many Italians and Greeks became grocers, bakers, cheese makers and orchard farmers, and so influenced the Creole cuisine in New Orleans.
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