Gumbo Life

Ask any self-respecting Louisianan who makes the best gumbo and the answer is universal: "Momma." The product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo, in fact, 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? And what explains its spread around the world?

A 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 began with a chicken chased down in the yard. Back then, gumbo was a humble soup little known beyond the boundaries of Louisiana. So when a homesick young Ken, at college in Missouri, realized there wasn't a restaurant that could satisfy his gumbo cravings, he called his momma for the recipe. That phone-taught gumbo was a disaster. The second, cooked at his mother's side, fueled a lifelong quest to explore gumbo's roots and mysteries.

In Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, Wells does just that. He spends time with octogenarian chefs who turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged.

Gumbo Life, rendered in Wells' affable prose, makes clear that gumbo is more than simply a delicious dish: it's an attitude, a way of seeing the world. For all who read its pages, this is a tasty culinary memoir--to be enjoyed and shared like a simmering pot of gumbo.

A sprightly, deeply personal narrative about how gumbo--for 250 years a Cajun and Creole secret--has become one of the world's most beloved dishes.
Ken Wells 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 Wall Street Journal. He has written five novels of the Cajun bayous and lives in Chicago.
A piquant history of gumbo... This is required reading for gumbo aficionados and addicts, and those who aspire to be.--Publishers Weekly
Affectionate portrait of that favorite Cajun comfort food and the tradition from which it came. . . . [A] gently spun tale with a few recipes that foodies will want to test immediately. A tasty treat.--Kirkus Reviews
Wells has meticulously traced [gumbo's] influences, and he has visited a host of eateries to find every sort of variation on gumbo, from the most high-toned French Quarter restaurants to the celebrated historic precincts of Leah Chase's iconic diner. . . . Anyone fondly recalling gumbo in its myriad guises will find plenty to savor here.--Booklist
Ken Wells was to the gumbo born. Enhancing that felicitous beginning, he has traveled the Gumbo Belt researching, recording, and--most importantly--savoring the myriad interpretations of the iconic Louisiana soup. He even has recipes, including two of my favorites. (I'm not telling which ones!) Like a dense, flavorful gumbo filled with tastes of the region, this is a book to savor.--Jessica Harris, author of High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America
Ken Wells knows gumbo, and from whence it comes. And gumbo, and its sources, are profoundly tasty things to know.--Roy Blount Jr., author of Save Room for Pie