Oh, to be in New Orleans this coming Shrove Tuesday lining up in the French Quarter to watch the Mardi Gras parade as masked characters on floats toss beads, cups and doubloons to thousands of outstretched hands.
The costumed revelries are much-anticipated for tens of thousands who pack the Big Easy for a taste of great southern cooking and soulful jazz and blues.
The next best thing to flying to this mega-bash is a sit-down at The Cajun House, St. Albert’s oldest as well as one of the city’s most popular and enduring eateries.
Gordon Gidora, executive chef and owner, a gentle giant with a hearty handshake, recalls visiting New Orleans when he was 19.
“It was a big drunken party. But it’s a beautiful city. We went to Garden City and rode the streetcars. The French Quarter has beautiful architecture and the Mississippi River is incredible. You see the parade. You eat the street food and some restaurants have been open for more than 100 years,” Gidora said.
He recalled Café du Monde, a café established in 1862 that is renowned for its beignets, a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar. Served with beignets was a specially flavoured brew made from coffee, chicory and sweetened milk.
“As I recall, it was quite good,” Gidora smiles remembering the pre-Katrina beauty of the city.
Since The Cajun House first opened in 1991 with Gidora as the inaugural head chef, it offered a showcase of Creole and Cajun authentic specialties. Dishes such as gumbos, po-boy sandwiches and jambalayas that somehow retained their bayou-country character.
Samples from today’s menu vary from the immaculate Shrimp Creole; the savoury étouffée, a spicy stew made with seafood and vegetables, or the classic New Orleans muffeletta, a traditional sandwich with Genoa salami, Italian ham, Provolone cheese and olive salad.
There’s nothing more authentic than the deep-fried French Quarter-styled Frog Legs or the Louisiana Alligator Boudin, a house-made sausage from alligator meat.
“The tail part is quite meaty and you grind it up. It’s tough and sinewy. I take the ground meat and put herbs and vegetables in it. Basically it’s like a sausage filling and I put it in a casing,” said Gidora.
All these dishes have culinary roots in France. However, through the centuries Spanish, African, Caribbean, American Indigenous, Acadian and to a lesser extent Italian, German and Irish cooks added their seasonings and techniques to this full-bodied melting pot of flavours.
Gidora’s backstory
A 1987 journeyman alum Red Seal chef from NAIT’s culinary program, Gidora honed his culinary skills and technique working kitchens at Edmonton Inn, the Petroleum Club and Louisiana Purchase, the former West Edmonton Mall location.Dennis and Nancy Vermette, who owned Louisiana Purchase, saw an opportunity to open The Cajun House and invited Gidora as the inaugural executive chef.
Back in 1991 Gidora recalls St. Albert’s culinary scene was limited to several fast food outlets as well as three casual family dining restaurants such as New York Steakhouse, Swiss Chalet and the now defunct Mona Lisa.
“When we first opened, we were really popular. People were looking for something new and exciting. After the first year, it started to slow down. We were off the honeymoon period and we worked to maintain the quality we offered,” Gidora said.
With new projects on the go, the Vermettes moved to Nordegg and Gidora bought the couple’s share in 1999, the year he moved to St. Albert.
“It was my opportunity to be the chef and own my own business,” he said.
But as the sole owner, he regularly works 10 to 14 hours daily seven days a week and recalls that his last real vacation was his honeymoon.
“Even when we were closed for renovations last year, I was still here putzing around.”
Despite tending to the numerous details that arise, his greatest joy comes from discovering new ways to combine ingredients into palate-pleasing dishes.
“I’m not a big baker, but I enjoy putting flavours together and making something people like.”
Gidora’s own taste preferences run to basic hearty foods – a good roast, a juicy turkey, his wife Nancy’s chicken pot pie or his mother’s perogies and cabbage rolls. His favourite food is in fact pepperoni and mushroom pizza.
“It’s the perfect food. It has cheese, dairy, meat, grains and vegetables. It’s what you like and what you remember. It’s down home cooking and that’s what Cajun is.”
For those of us not raised surrounded by the Creole-Cajun food culture, the differences may be hard to pinpoint. However for Louisiana chefs, Creole versus Cajun is like night and day.
Simply put Creole cooking is city food. Cajun is country food. The main difference lies in an old proverb – “It is said that a Creole feeds one family with three chickens and a Cajun feeds three families with one chicken.”
Creole refers to the original European, especially French and Spanish settlers, who were mainly from wealthy families. To display their status, they imported ingredients and brought chefs from Madrid, Paris and other European capitals.
Creole cooking is refined, delicate and luxurious often prepared by servants. In the European tradition, it emphasizes cream, butter, seafood, tomatoes, herbs and garlic. There is also less use of cayenne pepper and filé powder, an herb made from the ground leaves of sassafras trees.
Instead Cajun country, a southwest section of Louisiana, is mainly populated by Cajun people who are descents of Acadians expelled from Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1755.
Acadia was an agrarian area, but the ’Cadians – later Cajuns – expelled to the Louisiana Territory had to adjust to swamps, bayous, marshes and prairies. Thrown into the swamps, isolated from the nearest communities, they had to cook whatever exotic forms of wild game, waterfowl, wild fish, produce or grains were available.
Resourceful to the core, Cajuns applied French cooking techniques to new ingredients and developed some of America’s most-sought after regional soul cooking.
Many restaurants distort true Cajun food making it overly spicy and unnaturally piquant. However, pepper and spices are merely a small element. Authentic Cajun food is to a large extent about preparation, sharing and the pleasure of indulging in its unique character.
When whipping up one of his delicacies, Gidora adheres to the Cajun Holy Trinity – celery, onions and green peppers. He adds the Holy Trinity to stews, soups, sauces, jambalaya, and almost any other Cajun or Creole main dish. Sometimes he tosses in garlic for a more rounded taste.
Gidora is a man of simple words, however his passion for cooking speaks volumes.
“Cooking is getting to work with my hands and making a product people enjoy. That’s my satisfaction. People being happy when they leave,” he said.
“I have a good product that looks and tastes good. It gives me a sense of accomplishment, and I hope people enjoy my hard work and my staff’s hard work.”
