Link's known as a New Orleans chef and James Beard Award winner, but he's Cajun as hell and his recipes are largely no-nonsense, easy to make, and stay away from unusual ingredients.
Start with jambalaya, which is delicious and not as difficult to learn as making a roux for gumbo.
More philosophically, understand two things:
- Traditional Cajun food is farm food. These are dishes meant to be cooked slow while you're working, and in servings that load up a large family (or whole neighborhood) to prep for another day of it.
- Favor freshness, flavor, improvisation, and community over any concept of canonical accuracy.
There's no ideal "Cajun seasoning" (although I will swear to my grave on smoked and hot paprika being key components), and no foolproof roux-making method. No one single way to go about any of it. French concepts divorced from their European pretense -- compare Cajun boudin to continental French boudin, for instance -- then spun with Choctaw, Coushatta, and Caddo techniques (fry breads, native herbs, and steaming shellfish and gulf seafood), German immigrants making sausages out of pork but also game duck and deer (and beer), West African and Caribbean stews, vegetables, and barbecue, Spanish rice dishes and tamales, and a willingness to cook and eat any animal slow or stupid enough to get caught.
In the end it all comes down to how to stretch one chicken/pig/deer/duck/rabbit/turtle/catfish/basket of crawfish/whatever into a week of food when all you really have to eat is a huge pot of long-grain rice that you don't have time to fuss over. It's culinary alchemy.
That's why I suggest learning jambalaya first, because it embodies this concept: you cut and fry up one chicken and cook it in a stock pot with enough rice to serve a dozen people, and your goal is to make the entire pot taste like it's all chicken.
If you can do that, and wrap your head around how it happens, the rest of it just sort of falls into place.
I grew up in a small town in the Lafayette area and I concur with all of your points. I would also add that traditional Cajun food is poor man's food. They're made from low cost ingredients. In some cases, there could be some no-cost ingredients (e.g., if neighbor gives you fresh ducks from their morning hunt).
Probably one of the most divisive ingredients for gumbo is okra. Some will tell you that it's not a real gumbo if it doesn't have okra. The other camp won't eat it if it does contain okra.
On the use of file, I could probably count on 1 hand the number of times I've seen it used. Everyone knows about it, but I've never witnessed it being commonly used.
The two biggest challenges (IMO) of gumbo are the roux (making it without burning/scorching it, in which case you have to throw it out and start over) and the sausage. My family stopped making roux decades ago. They all buy pre-made roux. You can buy it with and without oil. I prefer using the roux without the oil because the jar doesn't need to be refrigerated after opening and it doesn't spoil (plus it's healthier). My family always has used smoked sausage for all gumbo (whether it's chicken, seafood, duck, etc.). Finding fresh smoked sausage to impart the desired flavor is very difficult. The very best (IMO) is the smoked sausage made by Teet's Food Store in Ville Platte.
I'll add on to your comment about the slow cooking. Not only the food should be cooked slow, but the chef should not be in a hurry. In my experience, my best gumbo and jambalaya comes from having plenty of time to cook it at a leisurely pace. Also, my jambalaya is only cooked in big cast iron pots. One of my Cajun cookbooks gives the admonition "Qui va doucettement va surement" (He who goes slowly goes surely).
> "Probably one of the most divisive ingredients for gumbo is okra. Some will tell you that it's not a real gumbo if it doesn't have okra. The other camp won't eat it if it does contain okra."
egads! having grown up in the south (but not in louisiana), i cannot wrap my mind around gumbo without okra. it seems so essential to the taste. how can it not have okra? what replaces it?
i've had tasty gumbo in new orleans and other places, but alas, i can't find any good gumbo in (the city of) LA, with or without okra.
ah, so a general distaste for okra, which i can't relate to, but can understand--i feel that way about celery (though i can tolerate it if cooked in with other stuff).
I’ve no idea how authentic the cooking was, but way back in the 70s and 80s, I used to watch Justin Wilson, the Cajun chef, on TV. Looks like there are a number of episodes on YouTube.
Justin Wilson was most certainly a real Cajun, and his cooking was authentic. The Wikipedia bio article[1] seems pretty accurate and fair. His TV persona was an act, but it was a genuine caricature of Cajun fun and humor. Funny as hell, and my kids love watching recordings on Youtube.
The Gumbo Pages has great recipes and explanations: https://www.gumbopages.com/food/ The site is a relic from the early internet, in all the best ways.
There used to be a cooking school in New Orleans that taught it. But this was before the hurricane so I don't know if it's still there. It was aimed at amateur cooks rather than professionals.
Here's a list of current cooking schools in New Orleans:
