Cooking in the Bayou

Bayou-born chef Patrick Mould is standing against the backdrop of shrimp boats, shimmery blue water and air as thick as the gumbo he’s about to make. It’s October in Delcambre (rhymes with ‘welcome’), LA, and a group of food writers and bloggers are gathered here on a tour of the part of the country where Tabasco sauce is made. Mould is telling the group that the cuisine in the rest of the country (outside the bayou), as good as it may be, is pretty much “whitebread.”

He’s got a heavy cast-iron skillet hoisted over his shoulder and a look of intensity in his eyes, and no one argues with him.

We’re in a fishing camp on the coastal waters of the Louisiana bayou, a mere six inches above sea level (which the locals consider to be “pretty high up.”) This place has become a hub of sustainable seafood, boats are passing through all day, and the fresh shrimp look shimmery and diamondlike…as far removed from frozen shrimp cocktail as you can get. Louisiana Direct Seafood, a partnership of ports here and in other parts of the state, works with the Louisiana State University Ag Center as a way for chefs and home cooks to grab straight-off-the-boat seafood.

Today, Mould is preparing some iconic Louisiana dishes: seafood gumbo, shrimp remoulade, jambalaya. From the dark roux (the starting point, a mixture of flour and oil cooked until it’s a deep mahogany color) to the final splash of hot sauce (Tabasco), Mould keeps the focus on authenticity.

“You have to use ingredients that are native to Louisiana,” he says while stirring a steaming pot. “You can’t be putting shiitake mushrooms in here.”

The flavors meld together into the hearty gumbo and jambalaya, and you can taste the roots where this cuisine came from: African, French, Native American and Spanish. The sun is higher on the horizon now, and the time is right to sit in the shade and dig in.

Photography by Denny Culbert