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A Taste of Local History

Opelousas The Gulf Coast has a culinary tradition unlike anywhere else, and Opelousas, a small town in Louisiana due north of Lafayette, has played an outsized role. Eula Savoie (pronounced SA-vwa) grew a small Cajun grocery store there into a sausage-making empire. Members of the Savoie family continue to lead the business, and many employees are from the same families who first worked for Ms. Eula. Moreover, Tony Chachere’s (pronounced SA-shur-ee), has been blended there since 1972. Chef Tony Chachere, the “Ole Master” of fine Cajun cuisine, first featured his homemade seasoning blend in his Cajun Country Cookbook — to call it a success is an understatement. Tony Chachere’s — still a family-owned company — is a staple on Rouses Markets shelves across the Gulf Coast. Then there’s LouAna (shortened from Louisiana) cooking and salad oils, all crafted in Opelousas for over 120 years. Want more? Chef Paul Prudhomme, who created a national buzz around Louisiana cuisine, and in the process, fundamentally transformed what it meant to be a chef in the United States, grew up on a nearby farm in — you guessed it — Opelousas.

Elmer’s If you celebrate Easter, you know three candies: Heavenly Hash, Gold Brick and Pecan Eggs. And if you don’t celebrate Easter, you find someone who does so you can find their basket and steal a Heavenly Hash, Gold Brick or Pecan Egg. Here on the Gulf Coast, Elmer’s Easter candies outsell national manufacturers by a ratio of five to one. But are you ready to have your mind blown? Easter candy accounts for only 5% of the company’s sales. Elmer’s is the oldest family-owned chocolate company in the United States, as the company dates back to Antebellum Louisiana, at a confectionary on the corner of Jackson and Levee streets in New Orleans. The company was founded in 1855 by Christopher Henry Miller, a pastry chef and German immigrant. When his daughter married Augustus Elmer, the Miller Candy Company was renamed Elmer-Miller. In 1914, it changed names again to Elmer Candy Company after Augustus Elmer’s sons joined the company. It wasn’t long before Elmer’s was soon touting itself as “the largest candy factory in the Crescent City.” In 1923, Elmer’s purchased the recipe for a candy made and sold at a Canal Street department store. The ingredients were simple: marsh- mallow, chocolate and almonds, but when put together and wrapped in foil packets, Heavenly Hash took the South by storm. The company did it again in 1936, striking gold — literally — with Gold Brick. (At the time, it was shaped like a bar rather than the now-familiar egg.) Though Gold Brick was smaller than other candy bars, it was the first to sell for a dime. Roy Nelson acquired Elmer’s in 1963 and, two years later, his brother, Allan, joined him at the company. They relocated to Poncha- toula, Louisiana, 45 miles away, where the family business remains to this day. Today Elmer Chocolate is run by Allan’s son, Rob. Of course, they aren’t the only Elmers in town. In 1930, Augustus Elmer’s sons used machinery that they found at the World’s Exposition in Chicago to invent the “corn curl,” which would eventually evolve to become today’s CheeWees. Morel Elmer, Jr., opened the family’s cheese curl business in 1946 as a division of Elmer Candy Corpora- tion. (There must have been something in the water where they grew up, because that still wasn’t enough for the Elmer family — in 1948, Charles Elmer Doolin invented a little something called Cheetos, after having already invented Fritos!) When Roy Nelson bought the Elmer Candy Company, the Elmer’s Fine Foods division wasn’t part of the sale, but the name “CheeWees” was. So the latter company continued manufacturing the same cheese curl under different names, including Chee-T and Chee-Z-Snax. Today, the company is owned jointly by Alan, Paul and Stephen Elmer. And it all has a happy ending: in 1993, Rob Nelson gave the CheeWees name back to the brothers Elmer. Today Elmer’s Fine Foods produces 15,000 cases of Original Cheese, Green Onion, Bar-B-Que, Hot-N- Spicy and Jalapeño CheeWees every single month.

Did you know? Alabama’s Wickedly Delicious Wickles Pickles are based on a 90-year-old secret recipe. Family owned Milo’s Tea , which originated in Birmingham, Alabama, first hit supermarket shelves in 1989. Golden Eagle Syrup , a unique blend of corn syrup, cane sugar syrup, cane molasses and pure honey, has been made in Fayette, Alabama, since 1928. ​

22 MARCH•APRIL 2020

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