Over the course of its 300-year history, New Orleans’ cuisine has been one of its greatest gifts to the world. Now, as we celebrate the city’s 300th birthday and WWL-TV’s 60th anniversary, our gift to you is a free e-cookbook, with free Cajun recipes.
This edition of our 360 cookbook series focuses on our region’s rich Cajun heritage and cuisine. Just as most Cajun dishes start with a roux – that mix of fat and flour that is the basis for the flavors that will follow – here we begin with a look at the foundation of the food we call Cajun. The cuisine that gave us versions of jambalaya, etouffee and gumbo is not native to New Orleans but spread from the bayou country to the city and beyond.
This cookbook is part of a series celebrating New Orleans’ culinary past and present, to coincide with the city’s tricentennial. What better way to commemorate 300 years of life in the city we love than by celebrating the thing that truly unites us all: food. For 60 years, Channel 4 has been privileged to celebrate and share many of those recipes with viewers across south Louisiana and Mississippi.
Before there were cable TV networks and websites dedicated to food and recipes, the Eyewitness Morning News was the place to watch Frank Davis make the perfect gumbo during the breakfast hour. Many local chefs who are now superstars in their fields made some of their first TV appearances on Channel 4. Our current cooking star, the larger than life Kevin Belton, continues the tradition, starting his work in the WWL-TV kitchen before the sun comes up. Kevin has helped put together this series, and many of his recipes are featured here, along with classics from the one and only Frank Davis, other well-known chefs and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, which keeps the region’s delicious culinary history and heritage alive.
