NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 Paul Prudhomme, the Cajun who popularized spicy Louisiana cuisine and became one of the first American restaurant chefs to achieve worldwide fame, died Thursday. He was 75.<\/p>\n
Tiffanie Roppolo, the CFO of Prudhomme\u2019s businesses, told The Associated Press that he died early Thursday after a brief illness.<\/p>\n
Prudhomme became prominent in the early 1980s, soon after opening K-Paul\u2019s Louisiana Kitchen, a French Quarter diner that served the meals of his childhood. He had no formal training, but sparked a nationwide interest in Cajun food by serving dishes \u2014 gumbo, etouffee and jambalaya \u2014 that were virtually unknown outside Louisiana.<\/p>\n
The distinctly American chef became a sensation at a time when the country\u2019s top restaurants served virtually nothing but European food.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always on a mission and nothing was impossible for Paul. He did things his way and let the food speak for itself,\u201d said chef Frank Brigtsen, who worked for Prudhomme for seven years. \u201cHe changed the way we eat in New Orleans in a major way, by bringing Acadian or Cajun cuisine to the restaurants of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prudhomme was known for his innovations. His most famous dishes used the technique he called blackening: fish or meat covered with spices, then seared until black in a white-hot skillet. Blackened redfish became so popular that Prudhomme lamented over customers who stopped ordering the traditional Cajun dishes that he loved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had all this wonderful food, we raised our own rabbit and duck, and all anyone wanted was blackened redfish,\u201d he said in a 1992 interview.<\/p>\n
Prudhomme was raised by his sharecropper parents on a farm near Opelousas, in Louisiana\u2019s Acadiana region. The youngest of 13 children, he spent much of his time in the kitchen with his mother, whom he credited for developing his appreciation of rich flavors and the fresh vegetables, poultry and seafood that she cooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith her I began to understand about seasoning, about blending taste, about cooking so things were worth eating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After high school Prudhomme traveled the country cooking in bars, diners, resorts and hotel restaurants.<\/p>\n
He returned to New Orleans in the early 1970s and found a job as chef in a hotel restaurant. In 1975, he became the head chef at the esteemed Commander\u2019s Palace restaurant.<\/p>\n
Prudhomme and his wife opened K-Paul\u2019s four years later.<\/p>\n
K-Paul\u2019s was inexpensive and unassuming \u2014 formica tables, plywood walls and drinks served in jars \u2014 but it was soon the most popular restaurant in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
Prudhomme\u2019s bearded face and oversized frame became familiar on television talk shows in the 1980s, where he encouraged Americans to spice up their meals. He expanded K-Paul\u2019s and turned it into an upscale operation. He published bestselling cookbooks and created a business that sold his spicy seasoning mixtures around the country.<\/p>\n
After Hurricane Katrina he used the profits from his spice company to keep his restaurant afloat, bringing in trailers to the parking lot for his staff to live in and cooking thousands of meals for rescue workers, said Liz Williams, who heads the city\u2019s Southern Food and Beverage Museum.<\/p>\n
Prudhomme\u2019s success brought regrets, as well. Prudhomme sparked the Cajun food craze, but he often said few Cajun restaurants outside Louisiana served the real thing. He worried over the common perception that all Cajun food is blistering hot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m at least partly to blame that so many people think all Cajun food is red-hot and spicy,\u201d he said. \u201cI see people dumping red pepper on food and I feel like crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prudhomme\u2019s weight, as much as his cooking skills, was a career trademark. Just over 5 feet tall, he had trouble squeezing into chairs. He had a bad knee, used a cane and usually moved in a scooter instead of walking. In the 1992 interview he said he was working on ways to take the fat out of recipes without losing the flavor.<\/p>\n
But later in his career he significantly slimmed down. During a 2013 cooking demonstration in New Orleans \u2014 done from his motorized scooter \u2014 he told the crowd that at one time he was 580 pounds but now weighed in at 200 pounds.<\/p>\n
Eating the right things and eating less had made the difference, Prudhomme said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to taste things this way,\u201d he said, filling his large cooking spoon. \u201cNow I taste them this way.\u201d He poked a fork into a single piece of carrot and held it up.<\/p>\n
____<\/p>\n
On the Net: http:\/\/www.chefpaul.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 Paul Prudhomme, the Cajun who popularized spicy Louisiana cuisine and became one of the first American restaurant chefs to achieve worldwide fame, died Thursday. He was 75. Tiffanie Roppolo, the CFO of Prudhomme\u2019s businesses, told The Associated Press that he died early Thursday after a brief illness. Prudhomme became prominent in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2107"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}