{"product_id":"gumbo-life-a-journey-down-the-roux-bayou-9781958888384","title":"Gumbo Life: A Journey Down the Roux Bayou","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eStraight from the roux bayou, a culinary memoir about how a centuries old Cajun and Creole secret―gumbo―has become one of the world's most beloved dishes.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo reflects the diversity of the people who cooked it up: French aristocrats, West Africans in bondage, Cajun refugees, German settlers, Native Americans―all had a hand in the pot. What is it about gumbo that continues to delight and nourish so many, in America and around the world? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother's gumbo often got started with a chicken chased down in the yard. In \u003ci\u003eGumbo Life: A Journey Down the Roux Bayou\u003c\/i\u003e, Wells shares his lifelong quest to explore gumbo's roots and mysteries. He spends time with octogenarian chefs to make a gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; and observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGumbo Life\u003c\/i\u003e, rendered in Wells' affable prose, makes clear that gumbo is more than a dish: it's an attitude, a way of seeing the world. This is a tasty culinary memoir―to be enjoyed like a simmering pot of gumbo.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis edition includes recipe additions as well as a story about the author's quest for authentic Cajun Dark Roux, which involved a hunt for (thankfully scarce) bear lard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKen Wells\u003c\/b\u003e covered car wrecks and gator sightings for his hometown weekly before leaving the bayous for a journalism career that included twenty-four years on the \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. He has written five novels of the Cajun bayous and lives in Chicago.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Blair","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50899862618386,"sku":"9781958888384","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d647dd99-2d4c-4bcf-88cd-1d96c52b2950.jpg?v=1738367897","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/gumbo-life-a-journey-down-the-roux-bayou-9781958888384","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}