If you enjoy Creole or Cajun cuisine, you should probably thank Chef Paul Prudhomme. As the founder and head chef of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, Prudhomme introduced the region’s food to the rest of America.
Paul Prudhomme was the youngest of 13 kids in his family. His father was a farmer, his mother’s family included early Cajun settlers.
Chef Paul opened his first restaurant when he was just 17. It was a hamburger joint that lasted just a few months, but which launched his professional food career, culminating in 1979 with the opening of K-Paul’s.
In 1984 Prudhomme published what became his signature cookbook, Chef Paul Prudence Louisiana Kitchen. Ten more cookbooks would follow, over the next 20 years.
Chef Paul also created a line of spices and sauces that can still be found in millions of kitchens today.
I met him for lunch one day in 1989. Well, to be accurate, he came to my studio and made lunch, and that’s what you’re about to hear in this interview.
So here now, from 1989, Chef Paul Prudhomme.
Paul Prudhomme’s wife Kay died in 1993. Chef Paul died in 2015 at age 75.