He is survived by his wife, Lori, and a brother, Eli.
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“I am deeply saddened by the passing of chef Paul Prudhomme”.
TOOKER: I think that Paul didn’t just change the way the country and the world viewed the food of southern Louisiana, but in fact, because he grew up on a share-cropping farm as one of 13, they lived off the land completely. Because of this, he was one of the first to popularize a regional cuisine, a trend that would expand greatly in the decades to come. “People said, ‘There must be more to Southern cooking, ‘ and he opened up the floodgates to the whole field of Southern cooking”.
Prudhomme was an internationally-acclaimed celebrity chef known for his skill in creole and cajun cuisine.
Prudhomme, known for a soft white hat, salt and pepper beard and Cajun accent, was a television mainstay who also launched a successful line of spices. I met Chef Paul when I was 11 years old and knew that I wanted to follow in his footsteps. “It has so many tastes, and every bite whops up on something else”.
The virtuoso’s spices, Magic Seasoning Blends, are sold nationally. “Anybody who makes a list of the most influential dishes in American history has to put Prudhomme’s Blackened Redfish near the top”. He received a trademark for the name “turducken” in 1986 and had a line of seasonings, hot sauce and sausages. He introduced Cajun food there, which, NOLA.com says, was “almost unheard of in New Orleans at the time”. Louisiana was still Spanish territory when his father’s family arrived.
In childhood, Mr. Prudhomme went by the name “Gene Autry Prudhomme”, after the singing cowboy.
As a young boy, Prudhomme would help his mother in the kitchen, including fetching vegetables from their garden.
After high school Prudhomme traveled the country cooking in bars, diners, resorts and hotel restaurants.
He is considered one of America’s first celebrity chefs, hosting several cooking shows on PBS and authoring nine cookbooks over the course of his career.
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In 1996, Prudhomme was the headline chef for a Kansas City Star Food Festival. “It was what Mama used to do”. (AP Photo/Bill Haber) Advocate staff photo by MATTHEW HINTON-A sample of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s cookbooks are seen at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen that Prudhomme opened in 1979 on 416 Chartres St.in the French Quarter.
