ROUSES_Fall2022_Magazine-low-res

TEAM ROUX

gumbo festivals & cook-offs

CHACKBAY ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The Louisiana Gumbo Festival is held in Chackbay, the “Gumbo Capital of Louisiana,” as declared by Governor Edwin W. Edwards back in in the ’70s. The Gumbo Festival has been going strong every October for more than 45 years. BRIDGE CITY ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Jefferson Parish’s oldest festival, the Bridge City Gumbo Festival, takes place October 14, 15 and 16. Bridge City was proclaimed the “Gumbo Capital of the World” by Governor Edwin W. Edwards in 1973. BAYOU LA BATRE ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT A gumbo cook-off is part of the annual Blessing of the Fleet festivities at St. Margaret Catholic Church in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, the Seafood Capital of Alabama. The Blessing of the Fleet tradition dates back to 1949. MOBILE ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The Propeller Club of Mobile, chartered in 1929, enthusiastically advocates for the maritime industry in the Port of Mobile. For 25 years it has hosted the Annual Rufus B. Lee Gumbo Cook-Off at Cooper Riverside Park.

NEW IBERIA ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the annual World Championship Cookoff is back in downtown New Iberia and will be celebrated Oct. 8 and 9. According to the Greater New Iberia Chamber of Commerce, “the competition began over 30 years ago when the chamber set out on a history-changing journey to generate revenue for the chamber, but also celebrate something that we do better than anyone else: Cook a wicked gumbo! With less than a dozen chefs serving gumbo off their truck beds in 1989, the event quickly turned into a serious one, with more and more chefs joining the competition every year to show off their culinary skills.” Believe it or not, I was one of the judges for the first cookoff, along with a friend of mine, Stan Dry, from my USL days. He was a track star from Byrd High School in Shreveport. Stan had risen through the ranks of culinary journalism to become editor-at-large for Food & Wine magazine in the Big Apple, but he had reached a point of his life when he wanted to leave the city life and live in South Louisiana, far from the madding crowd. As we recalled recently, the early gumbo contest had little more than a dozen entries and the crowd in attendance was mostly family and friends of the contestants. The chamber now boasts that the competition brings about 100 teams and 30,000 visitors to the Queen City. — Marcelle Bienvenu

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