Buffett Lucy Anne - Gumbo love: recipes for Gulf Coast cooking, entertaining, and savoring the good life

To be a good cook you have to have a love of the good, a love of hard work, and a love of creating.

JULIA CHILD

Dear Friends,

It is with deep humility that I thank you for holding this book in your hands. Gumbo Love is my love letter to the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexicothe place of my birth, the place where generations of my people walked the sandy shores, frolicked in the salty waves, sailed the crystal green waters, and cooked pots and pots of seafood gumbo long before I was even a notion.

My intention here is to pay homage to my coastal Southern food culture and continue the conversation I started in LuLus Kitchen, my first book. More than anything, I would simply love to have you pull up a chair to my kitchen table and share a little bit of the blessings, memories, and recipes from my Gulf Coast paradise.

If I had been born even slightly inland, I would not be the complex yet hopeful Gulf Coast gal that I am today. Yes, Im resolutely and stoically Southern, something you can tell the moment I utter a single-syllable word that magically rolls into multiple lazy syllables. But being from the coastal South, in particular, adds a distinct flavor to my Dixie soul that is hard to name or explain just like it is difficult to truly describe the joy and peace of walking on the sugar-white sandy beach, following the faithful curvy tideline as the irrepressible waves play a hypnotic symphony, lulling my concerns to a mere whisper and awakening a connection to the magnificent wonder and power of life. Perhaps its the blurry horizon in the faraway distance that beckons a call to adventure or a simple curiosity that sparks hope for a peace floating beyond the waters edge. Whatever saltwater secret it is that makes us coastal Southerners a little different, a little mystical, it has nurtured a heart connection to a place that I love a family I cherish and a cuisine that I am proud to serve and share with you.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by; I hope you enjoy your visit as much as I love welcoming you to my Gulf Coast table!

Always my spicy gumbo love,

Lucy LuLu Buffett

Perdido Key, Florida

October 2016

I ve spent hours and hours and days and days making gumbo. Plain old flour and oil in a hot skillet and then whisking, whisking, whisking till my arm aches. The oil and flour becomes a deep, dark roux, shiny and beautiful like smooth velvet, almost the color of the ancient cast-iron skillet I make it in. Its hard to describe the transformation that occurs with such simple ingredients and even harder to understandits just another of lifes many mysteries, like a magic spell passed down from cook to cook, a spell that turns shrimp and crab into tender, weightless, sweet bits of meat and the holy trinity of onions, celery, and peppers into soft morsels in a savory stew that will melt in your mouth like chocolate.