Alicia Bourgeois
🇺🇸Louisiana Creole and Cajun cooking, taught while you cook
I have cooked in New Orleans for twenty-five years, in the Creole tradition my grandmother worked in and that I later learned properly in professional kitchens. Gumbo, étouffée, jambalaya, roux - these are techniques long before they are recipes. Roux is the clearest example. There is no recipe for roux. There is a colour you are trying to reach, a time that depends entirely on your stove, and a point of no return past which the whole thing goes in the bin. You do not learn that from a book. You learn it doing it, with somebody watching who has done it a thousand times. I cook with you live rather than dictating steps. Show me your pot and your flame and we correct in the moment. I have a soft spot for the French connection here, in the language and in the food - my Louisiana French surprises people from France, but we understand each other fine.
