Paul Prudhomme - Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Seasoned America

When I set out at seventeen to see the world, I wound up eating and cooking my way through a good part of this country. Not only did I learn a lot about life in general, I learned there are many cultures that make up the great melting pot of American cuisineand most of them arent Cajun.

The people I met everywhere opened my eyes for me. They werent eating gumbo in San Francisco, they were eating cioppino. In Florida, no one had heard of jambalaya, but they ate loads of arroz con polio. The fish of choice in Colorado was trout, not catfish.

As I traveled, I learned that every region is different, and each one has a distinctive repertoire of dishes and cooking techniques. An old family recipe would be brought from someones ancestral homeland and lovingly translated and modified according to the fresh ingredients and cooking facilities available here. I discovered that American food is Cajun food. But its also German food, French food, Jewish, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Cuban, Irish, Native American, and so much more. There are more flavors and subtle nuances than any one journalist or historian could ever chronicle.

There were surprises everywhere I went: some wonderful surprises, and some not so wonderful. There were foods that seemed so foreign to me I had a difficult time becoming accustomed to their taste and textures. Often, Id try a dish I didnt care for several times out of curiosity, because everyone else in that part of America seemed to love it. Soon Id begin to appreciate its simplicity, but wonder why the cook hadnt browned the onions, or added garlic or salt, basil, organo, or thyme. If the right seasonings were added or better cooking techniques were employed, the simplest dish could grow into something really exciting. It was my first understanding of how to cross American cultures to create emotion in food. For instance, ground chile peppers are standard seasoning for Southwestern cooking, but if you add themwith restraintto a more subtle dish from, say, the Midwest, you can have a sensational new taste experience.

Over the years, recipes have changed as theyve been handed down through the generations. And chefs, cooks, and food experts have helped deliver many dishes from ridicule or banishment by adapting them to suit the tastes of a changing world. Take Cajun food, for instance, which in recent years enjoyed a period of extreme popularity throughout the United States. At the height of its chic, if you said you didnt care for Cajun food, people looked at you as if you were slightly deranged. But if the authentic, traditional Cajun dishes hadnt evolved somewhat from the original recipes, they never would have survived to gain acceptance in other cultures.

Even jambalaya, which is such a popular dish today, would have been regarded with contempt had it not changed. When I was a kid, it was made with short-grain rice that was grown in Louisiana rice fields, and it was incredibly starchy. I could never expect someone who grew up in New York City to enjoy a gooey clump of seasoned rice that comes out of the pot as one mass of starch. Because I was raised on jambalaya prepared just that way, I loved it, and I knew there was a great idea therebut I had to change my jambalaya to make it more acceptable to a wide variety of palates that werent Cajun.

As far as Im concerned, this all makes for happiness and a broader range of cooking tastes and techniques from which to choose. It makes me sad to know that many people who cook feel locked in to the ingredients and instructions of every recipe they attempt. No one should ever feel locked in to a recipe: There are always alternative ways to create a dish and get great results. And no one should feel locked out of a recipe either, simply because some of the ingredients are unavailable. Almost every recipe that exists has variations or potential variations and can be made with a variety of ingredients. If you cant get veal for a certain dish, try chicken. If lobster is unavailable, use crab. And almost any recipe can be adapted to suit the individual palate. If youre sensitive to spices, add chile peppers a little at a time until you have the heat you can tolerate. (See page 10 for tips on techniques.) All you need to know are a few basics, like how to work with seasonings and what enhances what. And all you need to do is use your imagination and be willing to take the risk.

My purpose in writing this book is to help us all understand how delicious traditional American food can be. Learning together how to get the best results with each dish, especially when using seasonings creatively, will help us get emotion and excitement into everything we cook. And once you get the reasoning behind the process and apply what you know, youll find it gets easier and easier to develop your own ideas. Youll feel freer to experiment with seasonings and to substitute ingredients where necessary or where you see fit. I want you to feel as if each recipe in this book is your own. My goal is that you have fun in the kitchen, while turning out heavenly dishes that bear your own signature.

Ultimately, then, my family and yours can create happy American food for generations to comefood that has the mystery of the past, the knowledge of the present, and enough emotion and excitement to carry us into the future.

Herbs and Spices

Herbs and spices have long been considered by many Americans as foreign substances to be regarded with suspicion or avoided. In many conversations Ive had around the country Ive been made aware of a resistance toward adding any new herbs or spices to a regional or traditional family dish. (Wouldnt grandma turn over in her grave if she knew we spiced up her bland meatballs?)

But the key to seasoning is to add an herb or spice that will really complement and push up the flavors of a dishand to add it at the right time and in the correct amount. Select the herbs and spices you want to taste in the dish and add some almost as soon as you begin to cook, right after you add the first onions, celery, or bell peppers, for instance. Ultimately, your seasonings will become a part of the dish, the way a perfume becomes a part of an individual. As you continue to add ingredients to the pot or skillet, add your seasonings in small amounts and taste frequently to be sure youre not covering up the taste of the most important ingredient in the dishthe chicken, beef, pork, or seafood. The true function of herbs and spices, is to heighten and enrich all the other flavors in a dish, not mask them. Whats more, properly used seasonings give the food a fragrance that prepares your tastebuds to accept the full depth of those flavors.

Building a Dish

If all the ingredients in each recipe could be thrown into a pot at one time, the heat turned on, and the food cooked a certain amount of time, with outstanding results, anyone could be a masterful cook. But much of the skill in cooking involves knowing how to build or construct a dish.

Imagine you were building a house, and all the components for the construction were dumped on the site at one time. What a mess! Now consider each dish you prepare as a house or a building. If all the ingredients are thrown together, they too will be dumped on your tastebuds in a confusing jumble, with no refinement or finesse.