What is the difference between Creole and Cajun cooking?
Most Louisianians claim the answer is simple. Many of the early Creoles were rich planters and their kitchens aspired to the grande cuisines. Their recipes came from France or Spain as did their chefs. By using classic French techniques with local foodstuffs, they created a whole new cuisine, Creole cooking. The Cajuns, on the other hand, were refugees who relied on their Acadian cuisine tradition and made the best of what south Louisiana offered merely to survive! The Cajun and Creole cultures are quite distinct and so are their cuisines. The Creoles were the European born aristocrats, wooed by the Spanish to establish New Orleans in the 1690’s. Second born sons, who could not own land or titles in their native countries, were offered the opportunity to live and prosper in their family traditions here in the New World. They brought with them not only their wealth and education, but their chefs and cooks. With these chefs came the knowledge of the grand cuisines of Europe. The influenc
Most Louisiana chroniclers claim the answer is simple. Many Creoles were rich planters and their kitchens aspired to grande cuisine. Their recipes came from France or Spain as did their chefs. By using classic French techniques with local foodstuffs, they created a whole new cuisine, Creole cooking. On the other hand, the Acadians, pronounced
• Cajun is simple, country food, traditionally made from cheap products. Like poor people used to eat before the ingredients became fashionable. Red beans and rice, gumbo, grialledes and grits, crawfish. It is hard to find cajun food, but Alex Patout’s has some. Creole is a blend of this with French city food with its rich sauces. Crayfish Etouffee comes to mind. Permalink | Reply charles Nov 11, 2003 08:31PM • re: charles Charles You are right that Cajun food began as country food and Creole food as city food. However, both traditions have gumbo, although quite different. Creole gumbo uses okra for flavor and thickening and is a seafood soup. Cajun gumbo uses file powder for thickening and flavor and is more based on chicken, sausages and game, though seafood can be an ingredient. The word, gumbo is said to have come from an African word for okra, the characteristic ingredient of Creole gumbo, and the word, gumbo is also said to have come from the Choctaw Indian word for sassafras, th
