To dine at his restaurant K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen required a long wait in a line that went to the end of the block and turned left.
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A representative from his restaurant, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, said that the famed chef died after a brief illness, but no further details were given, according to WWLTV.
Though he had no formal training, he sparked a nationwide interest in Cajun food by serving dishes – gumbo, etouffee and jambalaya – that had been virtually unknown outside Louisiana.
“He had the guts to take the food he knew and grew up with as a poor Cajun boy and make it presentable in a white-tablecloth restaurant”, his fellow New Orleans chef Frank Brigtsen told the Times-Picayune. After many plot twists over the years, blackened redfish fell out of fashion, but blackened everything-but-redfish-chicken, catfish, steak-became a national staple, and Prudhomme the first nationally famous Cajun chef.
The rotund, bearded Prudhomme became a household name in the 1980s through countless television appearances – including his own cooking shows – in which he encouraged viewers to spice up their lives and expand their palates. He was its first non-European chef. In 1975, Ella Brennan hired him as the chef of the famed Commander’s Palace, where he worked for five years. Prudhomme then moved to New Orleans, taking odd jobs in restaurants here and elsewhere. His creations caused quite a stir, and Prudhomme’s star began to rise.
“I will never forget his quintessential smile, and seeing him sitting out front of K-Paul’s with a jazz band swinging by his side, welcoming passerbys back to the French Quarter”.
Prudhomme, the youngest of 13 children, was born and raised in Opelousas. He published bestselling cookbooks and created a business that sold his spicy seasoning mixtures around the country. He anxious over the common perception that all Cajun food is blistering hot. “People said, ‘There must be more to Southern cooking, ‘ and he opened up the floodgates to the whole field of Southern cooking”. “I see people dumping red pepper on food and I feel like crying”.
Prudhomme’s weight, as much as his cooking skills, was a career trademark. Just over 5 feet tall, he had trouble squeezing into chairs. In the 1992 interview he said he was working on ways to take the fat out of recipes without losing the flavor. At one time, he weighed 580 pounds and in order to get around, he usually traveled on a motorized scooter, but in later years, he made a decision to slim down and he lost 380 pounds.
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An global human rights group said Friday that apparent Russian airstrikes on the central town of Talbiseh on September 30 killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 72, adding that the incident should be investigated for possible violations of the laws of war. He used to taste his cooking by using a large cooking spoon but changed that into a small fork and small bites. He poked a fork into a single piece of carrot and held it up.
