Creole Gumbo and All That Jazz

Book excerpt: Seafood, folklore, and New Orleans jazz history combine in “a delightful book with excellent recipes” (Mimi Sheraton, The New York Times). A dazzling array of photos, recipes, and far-out folklore, spiced up with tidbits of jazz history and lyrics, comprises a seafood cookbook that celebrates the world-famous cookery of New Orleans. Howard Mitcham offers more than 300 enticing dishes, from crab gumbo and shrimp-oyster jambalaya to barbecued red snapper and trout amandine. As an appetizer, Mitcham traces the development of the cuisine that made New Orleans famous and the history of the people who brought their native cookery to the melting pot that makes New Orleans a living gumbo. For the main course, he puts together a cornucopia of local delights that are ready to prepare in any kitchen. Mitcham traces the development of sophisticated Creole cooking and its rambunctious country cousin, Cajun cooking, with innumerable anecdotes, pictures, and recipes as well as a list of substitutes for hard-to-find seafoods. “Creole Gumbo is more than a cookbook. It is a history book, a music lesson and a personality profile of great jazzmen.” —Today