ROUSES_MayJun2019_Magazine-Print

letter from the editor by Marcy Nathan, Creative Director

Amanda handles our advertising for the magazine. She grew up in Luling. Residents in nearby Des Allemands and Bayou Gauche still make their livings off of the bayou. I pronounce Gauche like gōSH, but Amanda, whose grandmother’s people are LaCroixs from Nova Scotia who settled in White Castle, pronounces it like OH MY GOSH! Patti, our proofreader/copy editor, lived in Luling as a child too, and she backs up Amanda on that GOSH pronunciation, cher . The most Cajun of our group — at least the one with the thickest Cajun accent — is our marketing director, Tim, who grew up on a sugarcane plantation in Thibodaux. If you’ve ever seen him on our Facebook Lives, you know he almost needs subtitles. I’m from New Orleans, and I sound like I’m straight out of Brooklyn. If you ask Tim, he’d say I’m the one with the accent. Now if you’ve always wondered how we attract such great writ- ers, the answer is, they live here, or they grew up here, and in this is- sue, their Cajun roots are showing. Our newest contributor, Ken Wells, spent 24 years at The Wall Street Journal , but he made his bones at the Houma Courier. His new book, Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou , is in stores now. We included an excerpt from his chapter on Chef John Folse in this issue (see pages 48-51) . I have to say it’s been so much fun creating this issue. We’ve been listening to Cajun music, playing Pedro and Bourré, and sharing Bou- dreaux and Thibodeaux jokes. I’m a bit of a bookworm, so when we opened our store in New Iberia, I insisted we go to Victor’s Cafeteria, which is where Dave Robicheaux, the Cajun detective in James Lee Burke’s mystery books, often dines with his sidekick Clete (see story pages 58-61) . Kacie, Eliza, Rob and our artist, McNally — just Mc- Nally, like Beyoncé or, well, Cher — and I ate ourselves silly. Eating is what we do best around here. Just ask our wonderful food photographer, Romney Caruso. He’s half Italian, half Cajun — his maw-maw was born in Breaux Bridge in 1911, and his great-aunt was once crowned Boudin Queen. Romney’s Italian side shot our recent Pasta issue. His Cajun side shot this one. And that Cajun tarte à la bouille pie on our back cover? Yeah…it never made it back into the box. magazine team. See Frank’s photos on pages 16-19. Visit his gallery at 901 Royal Street, New Orleans or at www.frankrelle.com. Photographer Frank Relle’s epic photo of Lake Fausse Pointe in the Atchafalaya Basin is the focal point of our downtown New Orleans office, and was a daily inspiration for our

If you’ve been a regular reader of our magazine ( thank you! ), you’ll probably notice a new look in this issue. For the past six months, as we were putting out our Holiday, Soup and Pasta issues, the team and I were busying ourselves behind the scenes playing with new de- signs — even a new name. But like kids who can’t wait for the Cajun Night Before Christmas — ’Twas the night before Christmas an’ all t’ru de Rouse — we ended up already sharing a bit of what our illustra- tor, Kacie, could do in those magazines. She created a visual Cajun alphabet for this issue (pages 8-9) and drew our first-ever comic. It features the Cajun duo Boudreaux and Thibodeaux (pages 72-74 ). This magazine is a passion project for our marketing department, with no issue more dear to us than this Cajun one. Our team includes a Clement, pronounced Clay-mahnt (not Clem-ent) who lives in Chack- bay. A Besson, pronounced Bay-sohn (not Besson like lesson) who lives in Labadieville, which sits along the banks of Bayou Lafourche. She helped edit our Cajun glossary (see page 75 ). And we’ve got a Barrilleaux from Thibodaux, who helped teach the writer David W. Brown how to play the Cajun card game Pedro (see page 62-65) ; a LeBlanc from Gonzales, the Jambalaya Capital of the World; and a Hopkins who lived in Mobile, Alabama, but is in Gonzales now (so that counts). Don’t even think about offering either of them a bowl of red jambalaya. Our new magazine designer, Eliza, grew up in Grand Coteau, which is nestled between Opelousas and Lafayette. When Eliza likes something, she smiles and calls you cher , which is a term of endear- ment like dawlin’ that is pronounced sha, not Cher, like Sonny and.... Are you surprised she chose the typeface Boucherie for our cover?

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