11/19/2018
Journalist and novelist Wells (Crawfish Mountain) serves up a piquant history of gumbo, a quintessential Cajun dish and “the Zen food of an otherwise un-Zenlike culture.” There are few rules about what makes a gumbo a gumbo, and Wells covers myriad origin stories and myths (was it brought by the Acadians or slaves? Or derived from Native American cuisine? Perhaps all of them?) in arguably too great detail. Once the history, theories, and counter-theories are dispatched, Wells hits his stride and takes readers to, among other places, the annual gumbo cook-off in New Iberia, La., where cooking and copious drinking begin before dawn; a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton for supermarkets; plenty of gumbo-serving restaurants—from neighborhood joints to the esteemed Commander’s Palace in New Orleans; and into his family history and, specifically, his mother’s kitchen. In Wells’s telling, for every cook in Louisiana, there’s a different gumbo recipe, and each can only hope to be second best in the world. The best, of course, is mama’s. Wells clearly knows his stuff, and his enthusiasm for the region and cuisine is palpable, though he can veer into Rockwell-on-the-bayou style nostalgia overkill. This is required reading for gumbo aficionados and addicts, and those who aspire to be. (Feb.)

"Wells has meticulously traced [gumbo’s] influences, and he has visited a host of eateries to find every sort of variation on gumbo, from the most high-toned French Quarter restaurants to the celebrated historic precincts of Leah Chase’s iconic diner. . . . Anyone fondly recalling gumbo in its myriad guises will find plenty to savor here."

"When Ken Wells was editor at the Wall Street Journal, he glanced round the newsroom and observed: ‘I’m the only one in here who knows how to skin a squirrel.’ There’s no recipe for squirrel gumbo in this mouthwatering culinary memoir, but there is a vivid account of Wells’ languid bayou childhood and the history and personalities who seasoned it. There could be no better guide to this unique American subculture than Bonnie’s boy from Bayou Black."

"Ken Wells knows gumbo, and from whence it comes. And gumbo, and its sources, are profoundly tasty things to know."

"Ken Wells was to the gumbo born. Enhancing that felicitous beginning, he has traveled the Gumbo Belt researching, recording, and—most importantly—savoring the myriad interpretations of the iconic Louisiana soup. He even has recipes, including two of my favorites. (I’m not telling which ones!) Like a dense, flavorful gumbo filled with tastes of the region, this is a book to savor."

2018-11-13

Affectionate portrait of that favorite Cajun comfort food and the tradition from which it came.

Down on the bayou, it's all about the gumbo, the overstuffed soup that babies eat "as soon as they go off the breast or the bottle." Now, bayou has a specific meaning, and former Wall Street Journal writer Wells (The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, 2008, etc.) opens with a glossary of key terms, including that one, which describes a riparian ecosystem that "provided habitable high ground in a place where high ground was rare" for the Cajun, or Acadian, French-descended refugees who arrived there after being expelled from British Canada nearly 250 years ago. Gumbo itself derives from an African word for okra, a key ingredient, along with sausage, shrimp, bell peppers, and always rice. Beyond that, there are spices of various sorts, making the gumbo peppery or mild, simple or savory. One is filé, a powder made of ground sassafras leaves, whose "application in gumbo was subject to a rather robust debate even in the deepest part of the Gumbo Belt," namely whether it goes in while the gumbo is cooking or as it is cooling off. As the author notes, gumbo is not, strictly speaking, a Cajun invention, since it owes so much to West African antecedents, but nowhere has it become quite so elevated than Louisiana. From there, Cajun cooking has spread around the world. For instance, Paul Prudhomme's concoction of spices for blackened redfish has found a welcome home in Greece. Gumbo allows for experimentation, which "requires confidence and willing guinea pigs," though traditionalists will argue about that, too. In one cook-off, Wells, who grew up in the bayou, encountered gumbos made with tried-and-true hog lard, duck, and shrimp, with the most exotic thing being rabbit ("My mother would put rabbit in her sauce piquant but would never think of putting it in her gumbo"). The author closes his gently spun tale with a few recipes that foodies will want to test immediately.

A tasty treat.