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    Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou
    Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou
    Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou
    Audiobook8 hours

    Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou

    Written by Ken Wells

    Narrated by P.J. Ochlan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Ask any self-respecting Louisianan who makes the best gumbo and the answer is universal: "Momma." The product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo, in fact, reflects the diversity of the people who cooked it up: French aristocrats, West Africans in bondage, Cajun refugees, German settlers, Native Americans-all had a hand in the pot. What is it about gumbo that continues to delight and nourish so many? And what explains its spread around the world?

    A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black. Back then, gumbo was a humble soup little known beyond the boundaries of Louisiana. So when a homesick young Ken, at college in Missouri, realized there wasn't a restaurant that could satisfy his gumbo cravings, he called his momma for the recipe. That phone-taught gumbo was a disaster. The second, cooked at his mother's side, fueled a lifelong quest to explore gumbo's roots and mysteries.

    In Gumbo Life, you follow Wells as he watches octogenarian chefs turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo, joins a team at a hotly contested gumbo cook-off, and visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton. Brisk travelogue, riveting history, heart-felt memoir-this is a book to be savored like a simmering pot of gumbo.

    Editor's Note

    Quintessential history…

    Louisianan native Ken Wells serves up a mouthwatering history of the quintessential New Orleans dish: gumbo. Dig into colorful origin stories, and then get cooking. Secrets from pro chefs and home cooks will have you making the beloved bayou special on the regular in no time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateApr 30, 2019
    ISBN9781684418213
    Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou
    Author

    Ken Wells

    Ken Wells is a novelist and journalist from the banks of Bayou Black in South Louisiana’s Cajun county. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, the editor of two Pulitzer Prize-wining projects, and a former senior editor for Conde Nast Portfolio. He is the author of two nonfiction books. He spends his time in Chicago, with summers in Maine, and is an avid photographer, hiker, and fisherman.

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    Reviews for Gumbo Life

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Its hard to believe you could write an entire book on gumbo. This is not that. It involves the chefs (their backgrounds) recipes, habitats of the ingredients and the spread of Louisiana cuisine across the nation. Of course, this is partially a biography of the author and his family. but it goes way beyond this. Frankly, the reason I read this book is that I am in a signed first edition book club. But now I am going to the grocery looking to buy Cajun and Creole products. Good book for a narrow audience.
    • 4/5
      3.5 All things Gumbo, the quisessential staple of Louisiana. In many homes baby's first food. The difference between Cajun and Creole, which i found fascinating. The many nationalities that contributed to gumbo. It has been around for 250 years, since 1764, though of course ingredients have changed. Don't think many still make it using lard, but then who knows. Not everyone is health conscious.Houma, Louisiana, where Wells was born, his family's history, and his love of his mother's gumbo. Some amusing family stories and s tour of the area, and others in Louisiana. Why he had to learn to cook gumbo for himself. The many different ways gumbo is cooked, based on the ingredients used. Many of the basic ingredients though stay the same. Amazing though the many different things that have been thrown into the pot. I found this to be an interesting book, though certain parts were a bit too lengthy. I do though, love Louisiana and seeming it through his eyes, hearing his family stories, was very entertaining. At books end are several recipes for different types of Gumbo. ARC from Edelweiss.