Chef Paul Prudhomme. What do you know about him?
I think I must have missed his heyday, but my local PBS channel ran a few of his reruns, and I don't know what the heck to think.
He started off the show with this heavy cajun accent, and then all of a sudden, he was completely accent-less, midwestern as I am...and then he moved on to another topic, and he had the accent again, but not as hokey as at the beginnin' of the show.
It was all rather odd and made me skeptical as to whether his recipes would be authentic or as contrived as the accent.
Other than the show, I've seen his face on some seasonings, but that's about it.
So, was he a TV fabrication? Or is he someone I should know more about?
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39 Comments:
i would say he really started to put cajun cooking on the map. and most of his recipes work. some chefs i know would call him an American icon. his fingers look like sausages to. ooh, also, he almost single handedly caused the overfishing of the gulf red-fish. but seriously, i like his show, i like his food, he seems like a genuine nice guy and K-Paul's hjis resto. in New Orleans is very important.
coolname at 8:58PM on 01/03/09
I've got one of his first cookbooks. Met him at K-Pauls in NOLA in 1981. He's genuine. Don't know about the accent thing though. By the way for Cajun cooking recipes, he's well on top of Emeril.
Ribster at 9:15PM on 01/03/09
he's one of the very original celebrity chefs - but the real deal....right up there with julia.....
pooch at 9:43PM on 01/03/09
Interesting. Somehow, he slipped past my notice. I don't know where he was in his career when these shows were first aired, but they obviously weren't big-ticket productions, based on the camera work and props and whatnot. Then again, it was probably before any cooking shows were taken very seriously.
dbcurrie at 9:55PM on 01/03/09
@db - exactly, he was very popular in the early 80's (and maybe before ... but that's when i heard of him) ... i saw him a few months ago on some show and he had lost a lot of weight.... he's such a natural.... down to earth cook...
pooch at 9:59PM on 01/03/09
Paul Prudhomme put a face on cajun cooking back in the late 70's. He is definitely the real deal.
izatryt at 10:01PM on 01/03/09
I always thought he looked like Dom Delouise.
PDXbiker at 10:03PM on 01/03/09
yes, he does look like DOM DELOUISE! that's funny.....
pooch at 10:05PM on 01/03/09
He's the real deal. I was working in a restaurant and the chef asked if I wanted to go to see him. So I saw him do a demo at a hotel that I ultimately ended up working at (and this was in Massachusetts) I do like his spice blends and actually use his recipe to make my own cajun spice blend. Awesome stuff!
SayWhat at 10:08PM on 01/03/09
He deserves a second look if you are not too familiar with him. Interesting bio. I went to K-Pauls in the early 80's. Stood in a long line for hours and had a great time and the spiciest food of my life. No reservations and no credicards. I hate to ask but, did he invent the turducken?
vickiee at 10:31PM on 01/03/09
invent is questionable, popularize is certain. also, he made blackening famous. that is what i meant with my red-fish comment.
coolname at 10:39PM on 01/03/09
He's the real article. What you see on his cooking shows is how he really is. He's lovely, kind man and a great chef. I had the honor to meet him at a food trade show years ago and will never forget the genuine handshake.
kathyvegas at 11:01PM on 01/03/09
Paul Prudhomme is looooovely. I finally met him after we returned to the city (I live in NOLA) in January 2006. Very quiet and unassuming in person, and definitely a fixture here in New Orleans. K-Paul's is my favorite restaurant here, too. the blackened stuffed pork chop marchand du vin = my favorite dish in the world. I'd eat that every day if I could wear stretch pants for life. I do like his "magic" seasonings (the one for pork is really great rubbed over a tenderloin).
His accent is real. If you are not familiar with the accents of S. Louisiana/Acadiana region, you might not know what to listen for (if that makes any sense), but my point is that he is genuine. The show runs frequently on our PBS station here, and it's sort of retro and not too exciting. I've watched it a couple times, though I enjoy his cookbooks much, much more.
pearl at 11:02PM on 01/03/09
He's the Jerry Clower of Cajun cooking.
Not, that's not snarky. What I mean is, he's a chef with real ties to a strong, regional cuisine, along with some ideas of bigger things; same as Jerry Clower was a regional Southern comic with the same "larger picture."
/just reminiscing about Jerry Clower, for some reason
//probably because Prudhomme was mentioned.
TikiPundit at 12:36AM on 01/04/09
Yes, he looks a lot like Dom Delouise.
http://totallylookslike.com/2008/08/13/dom-deluise-totally-looks-like-paul-prudhomme/
Don Luis at 6:37AM on 01/04/09
I recall in a cookbook by Dom Deluise there being a photo of him with Prudhomme. That was probably 20 years ago ... I doubt it'd be easy to find anywhere.
Bourdain did a special in the last couple years on post-Katrina New Orleans. In that special he went to K-Paul's when it was reopening where Prudhomme had realized what was missing from the French Quarter was street music. Prudhomme was out on the sidewalk on his motorized chair enjoying the jazz band he'd hired to play on the sidewalk.
It doesn't get much more real than that.
LunaPierCook at 9:30AM on 01/04/09
Here's a bio from his site. Predictably, a little advertising is wound around the information but it's still worth reading.
Found one on starchefs.com as well.
Another bio from a site called mahalo.com. This one includes a story about how Prudhomme was shot in 2008 on a golf course? Hadn't heard that one.
Prudhomme and Justin Wilson are probably neck and neck as being the most instrumental in bringing Cajun cooking to the forefront.
therealchiffonade at 9:36AM on 01/04/09
Last time I saw him he was a a restaurant and food show and he was incredibly overweight - in fact he was in a wheel chair kind of thing so I'm glad to hear he lost a lot weight.
His sweet potatoes with orange and lemon are one of our thanksgiving traditions - think it has a 1/2 pound of butter.
He's an original and as others have said, he put cajun and New Orleans on the map.
I learned a lot from him about flavors and "lagniappe" - think I spelled that correctly!
He truly is an American icon.
Nonny at 10:52AM on 01/04/09
i thought he was dead.
dearrie at 11:28AM on 01/04/09
Yes, he was grazed by a bullet on a golf course here in New Orleans, but he was ok.
pearl at 12:14PM on 01/04/09
@dearrie I thought he was dead too. I guess I was thinking of Justin Wilson. Or Dom Deluise...
KTempesta at 12:33PM on 01/04/09
His crawfish etoufee is a spiritual experience.
ocarol at 2:15PM on 01/04/09
Dom Deluise is alive! He's in one of my favorite movies, Fatso.
I believe Prudhomme may have had bariatric surgery. Not sure. I know Chef Jan Birnbaum had it and lost a ton of weight.
therealchiffonade at 2:50PM on 01/04/09
Show some respect. There was Rombauer. Then there were Child and Beard. Then there were some regionalists--Bastinch, Romagnoli, Pepin, and Prudhomme among them. What would you give to be the person who made your cuisine respectable in the larger world? That's what he did, and we can go on about his weight and his accent and his eventual commercialism, but that's what he did.
jscheck at 1:20AM on 01/05/09
jscheck, I wasn't being disrespectful about the accent, but it really did come and go during the segment. It seemed like when he was reading from the prompter at the beginning, his accent was really heavy, but then when he was talking while he was working -- and probably ad-libbing -- the accent faded considerably. Maybe his accent has faded, but they asked him to pump it up, and when he stopped thinking about it, he went back to his normal speech patterns. The accent came on stronger again when he was wrapping up at the end. Again, he was reading from the prompter.
The show had pretty lousy production values, so I don't know what archive they dug it out of, or how old it was, or at what point he was in his career.
Since I wasn't familiar with him, I asked.
dbcurrie at 1:44AM on 01/05/09
I wasn't being disrespectful either about Prudhomme's weight. As a matter of fact, I think he did precisely the right thing. Surgery kept him on the planet a while longer.
Chefs "introduce" their cuisine to generations of people. Justin Wilson was among the first to put Cajun cooking on the forefront. On a lesser scale, Emeril did it for the more recent generation of cooks; long after Wilson died and Prudhomme scaled back on media appearances. Julia Child thought enough about a young, uni-browed Emeril to highlight him on her show and watch raptly as he demo'd how to eat a crawfish.
Giada is picking up where Batali left off (to pursue his restaurant empire). True, she might not be an encyclopaedia of Italy as is Batali, but her food is good, solid, authentic Italian.
therealchiffonade at 7:49AM on 01/05/09
Chef Paul, Jacques Pepin, and Julia are the three chefs that started my love affair with all things food. I have his cookbooks though I've never had the pleasure of meeting him personally. He's authentic, and his recipes are excellent. When he was at his heaviest, he would cook sitting down.
juliebugsmama at 11:09AM on 01/05/09
Hey! I can honestly say that Chef Paul was/is the best boss anyone could ever have. A truly remarkable man; I had the pleasure of working with and for him during my years in nola. I started as a shy hostess at Mr. B's Bistro exactly at the opening of the restaurant and ended up doing a kitchen apprenticeship with him (and quite a fantastic crew) at K-Paul's. Kind, exacting, honest, true Cajun--the accent is real-a clever businessman; I cannot say enough about the man. I am a personal chef today and have worked in several excellent kitchens in France as well as in the States and I truly owe a great homage to Chef paul for teaching me, with love and patience, the basics of being a chef, not just a cook.
hobcat57 at 12:32PM on 01/05/09
Hmmmm...well, if his show was on in the late 70's, I can see how I missed him. Interesting that everyone loves him, though. Anyone else you mention, there are at least a few who aren't fans. Well, maybe except Julia.
So...I guess I need to catch up. Does anyone have a favorite cookbook of his that they'd recommend?
dbcurrie at 1:36PM on 01/05/09
@dbcurrie- yeah- the very first cookbook is the best, in my opinion--K-Paul's Louisiana Louisiana Kitchen. The bible. I was there, watching Chef Paul and his able assistant, Paulette (no kidding) work through every single recipe and scale them down for the home kitchens--he built a "test kitchen" on the street level of the restaurant and they worked together for quite a while on each and every recipe. I still refer to that book for my chicken and sausage gumbo, rabbit in sauce piquant and Lori Taylor's cookies. The sweet potato-pecan pie is a much requested item from my clients during the holidays, too. The lightened up book, I think it is called A Fork in the Road was a little disappointing to me for the use of artificial sweeteners but it was a stab at the diet craze of the 80's. Go with the first one, i assure you that you won't be disappionted!
hobcat57 at 2:28PM on 01/05/09
Justin Wilson's cajun accent was largely fake. I mean, he might have had sort of an accent, but the over-the-top accent in his cooking shows was fake. I think in the intro to his PBS show he said he was 1/8 cajun. Another beef I have about that show is that alot of the time, he wasn't actually cooking. He was just dumping stuff in a pot and stirring it. I'm not sure why.
Chef Paul is one of the first chefs to get me interested in cooking in the early 80's. I've never eaten at K-Paul's but I want to.
I like the spice blends - the pasta/pizza spice blend is delicious on buttered popcorn.
RegrettableFoodie at 2:59PM on 01/05/09
Paul Prudhomme preceded Emeril Lagasse as the executive chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans. He's the very definition of the real deal.
Check out this classic book:
http://www.amazon.com/Chef-Paul-Prudhommes-Louisiana-Kitchen/dp/0688028470/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231211393&sr=8-1
What a great thing to find him!
ccbweb at 10:11PM on 01/05/09
I think he pretty much put Cajun cuisine on the culinary map. We were in New Orleans in the early 80s (at the World's Fair!!!) and ate at his restaurant and met him. What an experience! He pre-dates Emeril by awhile. I hadn't thought about him in years, guess I thought he was dead or maybe retired.
gourmetgal at 10:34PM on 01/05/09
vickee...according to best research done by Jeffrey Steingarten (The Man Who Ate Everything), Paul Prudomme IS the inventor of the turducken.
ms09179 at 10:36PM on 01/05/09
He introducted me to Cajun, way back. I remember seeing him sitting in a chair to cook, and I'm pretty sure he had to use a wheelchair to get around. I didn't know he had lost so much weight. I thought he died. I'm so happy he got healthy.
Isn't Justin Wilson the guar awn' tee cook? He had a Paula Deen cookin' in the back yard appeal, whereas Chef Paul is the Cajun equivalent of Jacques Pepin's French. Professionals who have earned admiration and respect, worldwide.
PerkyMac at 12:05AM on 01/06/09
@Perky I was wondeing that myself re: Justin Wilson, he had that show in the 80's my mother and I used to got a kick out of him.
pjracz10 at 7:16AM on 01/06/09
Justin Wilson always reminded me of the Swedish Chef on the Muppets.
beersnob at 1:18PM on 01/06/09
Justin Wilson is one-half cajun, not one-eighth. Still, his accent was faker than fake. Wiki describes him as a chef but doesn't mention (unless I missed it) any actual restaurant experience. Anyway, I was amused by him briefly but then he just bugged.
RegrettableFoodie at 7:36PM on 01/07/09
Chef Paul Prudhomme , is 100% Acadian, Born and raised in Opelousas, the seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He is the founding father of Cajun Cuisine. In short Chef Paul makes Emeril look like Captn` Kangaroo. He is the Chef of Chefs. He has personally acquired more Culinary Awards than all the Iron Chefs of America combined. Awards such as the James Beard Award for " BEST CHEF: SOUTHEAST" in 1998. His awards are to Numerous to list and his contributions to cuisine to abundant to write. In 1979 He and his late wife K opened a Restaurant "K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen" and made world history. If Chef Paul was a Greek god, he would be Zeus. Truly one of the most gifted and revered chefs of the 20th Century, but don't take my word for it see for yourself. Every Thanksgiving day Madden makes that Tur-duck-en,you know a Turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken..ever heard of it? Thank Chef Prudhomme... Oh and his most famous.. "Blackened Redfish".. ever have anything blackened ? well if you didn't have chef Paul do it, you probably haven't had it done right, ... well simply because He invented the process of blackening...O did I mention that he still sits as an adviser to the ACF Olympic World Culinary Team USA that Won in 2000???...Snap!!
Zchef2Know at 1:24AM on 01/23/09