Nation/World

Paul Prudhomme, Louisiana chef who popularized Cajun cooking, dies at 75

Paul Prudhomme, the Louisiana chef who made jambalaya, crawfish pie and gumbo part of the national vocabulary through his French Quarter restaurant, cookbooks and seasonings, died Thursday in New Orleans. He was 75.

His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for K-Paul's Kitchen, through which the jovial chef helped popularize his native Cajun cuisine.

The restaurant's success led to cooking shows, cookbooks and a line of spices that put Prudhomme's face in grocery stores across the country.

Craig Claiborne, writing in The New York Times Magazine in May 1984, called Prudhomme "the undisputed pontiff and grand panjandrum of the Cajun and Creole cookstove, that genial genius of massive girth."

The celebrity chef wrote nine cookbooks in all and had a spice line called Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Seasoning Blends, which he sold online from his website. He also created and sold smoked meats, including andouille sausage and tasso, both requisites for cooking New Orleans recipes.

The youngest of 13 children, he learned to cook at his mother's side in Opelousas, La. In 1975, Ella Brennan hired him as the chef of the famed Commander's Palace, where he worked for five years. He was its first non-European chef.

New Orleans Times-Picayune restaurant critic Gene Bourg recalled "going to Commander's and seeing these bizarre menu descriptions. This is when Paul began using all of these little puns and wordplays in his menu items. He started using words like 'debris,' 'Cajun popcorn.'

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"Nobody knew who he was, because in those days chefs were very anonymous."

He soon lost his obscurity. He opened K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in July 1979 in the French Quarter after looking for a spot he and partner K. Hinrichs could afford. They found a place at 416 Chartres Street for $50 a month, and even he called it a dump.

But people lined up to get into the small, no-reservations restaurant. After he renovated and expanded in 1996, he started taking reservations.

His cooking was Cajun but still very personal. He butchered his own animals. He made his own sausages and pates. People flew across the country to eat his roast duck in pecan gravy, jambalaya and blackened redfish. The latter was so popular, according to Prudhomme, that he had to limit that dish to one to a table. And you always had to finish off a meal with sweet potato pecan pie.

Prudhomme received numerous awards from the Louisiana State Restaurant Association, the American Culinary Federation, the National Restaurant Association and other culinary groups. He was also the first American chef to receive Le Merite Agricole of the French Republic.

In his heyday, he appeared on NBC's "Today" show, ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman," CNN's "Larry King Live" and many other shows. He was an accomplished raconteur who loved to talk about New Orleans and its food. In 2002, he was the subject of an A&E biography.

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