Book Review: American Cooking: Creole Acadian
With Fat Tuesday quickly approaching, I wanted to find some good Cajun/Creole recipes for the big day. I remembered reading about a book that is part of an old series of books from Time-Life called Foods of the World. This particular book is entitled, American Cooking: Creole and Acadia. It was written way back in 1971 by Peter Feibelman, a playwright who grew up in New Orleans. James Beard also worked on this project as a consultant.
As I learned in the first couple chapters, the rich culinary tradition of Southern Louisiana has had many cultural influences over the centuries. These include Native Americans (Choctaws), Spanish, French, and Acadians. The Acadians were French immigrants that came to Louisiana from Canada in the 1700s and settled in the bayou country and other rural areas throughout the southern part of the state. The cuisine of Louisiana has borrowed the best ingredients and techniques from each of these cultures and is still evolving today. The recipes are not rigid and they lend themselves to improvisation and continual improvement. The people who live here have a true passion for cooking and this is one of the reasons that some of the greatest chefs in the United States got their start in Louisiana.
Overall, the writing, photography, and recipes in this book still hold up. This book contains over ninety recipes but it is much more than just a cookbook. It is also part history book, part travel guide. After exploring the influences and traditions of Creole and Acadian cuisine, Feibelman goes on to describe many of the famous restaurants in New Orleans. Amazingly, after 50 years, many of these restaurants are still in business! In fact, not only are they still thriving but I was surprised to find that some places still had much of the same decor. For example, on our first visit to New Orleans we had brunch at Antoine’s in the same dining room that this photograph was taken. It looked just like this on the afternoon of our visit and the wait staff was dressed like these gentlemen.
Roy and Angelo Alciatore (both wearing glasses) and the restaurant manager.
In addition to Antoine’s, the book also profiles other famous restaurants like Galatoire’s, Brennan’s, Le Ruth’s (closed in 1991), Bon Ton Cafe, and Chez Helene (closed in 1995). The Author describes these establishments in such detail that you feel like you are actually there. He describes the many characters that made these places unique, the dishes they invented, and why each was important to the culinary tradition of New Orleans.
Feibelman concludes the book with a portrait of life in bayou country. This includes homemade classics like “pig ear” pastries, fromage de tête de cochon (head cheese), and pigeon casserole. Also described are various social events in Acadian life like the Boucherie where friends get together to slaughter a large hog, prepare a myriad of dishes from all of its parts, play music, dance, sing and have a great time. There are some unusual recipes included in this section of the book including one for Stuffed Ponce or pig stomach and Backbone Stew!
As you can imagine, it was difficult to decide which recipes to prepare as the book features so many great choices. In the end, I went with a couple of New Orleans standards – Bread Pudding and King Cake. I also tried another dessert recipe, Tourtes Douces (Blackberry Turnovers).
Despite its age, I would recommend this book on many levels. I think it is a great primer for anyone planning to visit New Orleans or anyone that is interested in Southern or Cajun/Creole cooking. I would also recommend it as a great source for recipes from one of the United States’ richest culinary regions. Each of the three recipes that we tried were exceptional and we can’t wait to try more of them later this year. Because of the quality of this book, we also plan on exploring more volumes in the Foods of the World collection. We give this book 4 out of 5 stars.