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PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

A YA-HA! MOMENT ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Mr. B’s Bistro on Royal Street in the French Quarter opened as an offshoot of Commander’s Palace in 1979. Chef Paul Prudhomme, who brought Cajun food (including the first dark roux gumbo) to Commander’s Palace under Ella Brennan, helped open it. “He had his finger in every pot at Mr. B’s,” said Ella Brennan in an interview after Prudhomme died. Marcelle Bienvenu, and just about everyone on the internet, credits Prudhomme and Brennan with creating and naming Gumbo Ya-Ya. “When the Brennans decided to open Mr. B’s Bistro in the French Quarter (in 1979) across

from the Monteleone Hotel, Ella wanted to have a unique gumbo served,” she says. “Ella and Chef Paul (and all of us) discussed this in detail — Paul wanted a deep-flavored gumbo and they wanted to call it gumbo ya-ya.” Mr. B’s suggests that another chef was respon sible for creating their signature dish. “We were first introduced to this rich, dark-roux gumbo from one of our early chefs, Jimmy Smith, who grew up eating it in Cajun country,” the website states. “Its name is said to come from women who would cook the gumbo all day long while talking, or ‘ya-ya-ing.’”

SALTINES ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT F.L. Sommer and Company of St. Joseph, Missouri, is credited with making the first saltine cracker back in 1876. The perforations on top are called docking holes, which prevent the cracker from pillowing during the baking process. They are the perfect crackers for gumbo.

34 ROUSES FAL L 2022