Dishes typical of Creole food

Creole Jambalaya with shrimp, ham, tomato, and Andouille sausage.

Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana which blends French,^[1] Spanish,^[1] Portuguese, Italian, Native American,^[1] and African influences,^[1] as well as general Southern cuisine. It is similar to Cajun cuisine in ingredients (such as the holy trinity), but the important distinction is that Cajun cuisine arose from the more rustic, provincial French cooking adapted by the Acadians to Louisiana ingredients, whereas the cooking of the Louisiana Creoles tended more toward classical European styles adapted to local foodstuffs. Broadly speaking, the French influence in Cajun cuisine is descended from various French Provincial cuisines of the peasantry, while Creole cuisine evolved in the homes of well-to-do aristocrats, or those who imitated their lifestyle. Although the Creole cuisine is closely identified with New Orleans culture today, much of it evolved in the country plantation estates so beloved of the pre-Civil War Creoles.^[2] (Despite its aristocratic French roots, Creole cuisine does not include Garde Manger or other extremely lavish styles of the Classical Paris cuisine.)

Overview[link]

The Spanish, Italian, and Canarian influences on Creole cuisine were in the heat of the peppers, the wide usage of citrus juice marinades, the supreme importance of rice, and the introduction of beans. The Spaniards and the Italians also used tomatoes extensively, which had not been a frequent ingredient in the earlier French era. Pasta and tomato sauces arrived during the period when New Orleans was a popular destination for Italian settlers (roughly, 1815 to 1925). Many of them became grocers, bakers, cheese makers and orchard farmers, and so influenced the Creole cuisine in New Orleans and its suburbs. The African influences which were extensive, came about because many of the servants were African-American, as were many of the cooks in restaurants and cafes.

The first French, Spanish and Portuguese Creole cookbooks date back to the era before the Louisiana Purchase. The first Creole cookbook in English was La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes, From Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous For Its Cuisine, written by Lafcadio Hearn and published in 1885.^[3]

By that time Creole was already an identifiable regional cuisine recognized outside Louisiana: for example, an 1882 Florida hotel menu now in the New York Public Library's collection offered "Chicken Saute, á la Creole."^[4]

Starting in the 1980s, Cajun influence became important, spurred by the popular restaurant of Chef Paul Prudhomme. A national interest in Cajun cooking developed, and many tourists went to New Orleans expecting to find Cajun food there (being unaware that the city was culturally and geographically separate from Acadiana), so entrepreneurs opened or rebranded restaurants to meet this demand. The "New New Orleans Cooking" of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse includes both Cajun and Creole dishes. In his writings and TV shows, Lagasse both draws the distinction between Cajun and Creole and explains where they overlap.^[5]

With the rise of southern American Cooking in the 1980s, a New Creole (sometimes called Nouvelle Creole or Neo-American Creole Fusion) strain began to emerge. This movement is characterized in part by a renewed emphasis on fresh ingredients and lighter preparations, and in part by an outreach to other culinary traditions, including Cajun, Southern, Southwestern, and to a lesser degree Southeast Asian. While the Cajun food craze eventually passed, Modern Creole has remained as a predominant force in most major New Orleans restaurants.

Classic dishes[link]

Oysters Rockefeller

Appetizers[link]

• Crabmeat Ravigote
• Oysters Bienville
• Oysters en Brochette
• Oysters Rockefeller
• Shrimp Remoulade

Soups[link]

Southern Oxtail Soup

• Crawfish Bisque
• Gumbo
• Oyster and Artichoke Bisque
• Yakamein
• Turtle Soup
• Oxtail Soup

Main dishes[link]

Lobster creole

Crawfish étouffée, served at a restaurant in New Orleans.

• Crawfish étouffée
• Jambalaya
• Crawfish Fettuccine
• Pompano en Papillote
• Red Beans and Rice
• Shrimp Creole
• Chicken Creole
• Trout Meuniere
• Sauce Piquante
• Stuffed Bell Peppers
• Blackened Salmon
• Mirliton
• Creole Baked Chicken
• Shrimp Bisque
• Quiche
• Smothered Pork Chops/Steak
• Potato Salad

Side Dishes[link]

• Maque choux
• Red Beans
• Dirty Rice
• Green Beans w/Potatoes

Desserts[link]

Austin Leslie's Creole bread pudding with vanilla whiskey sauce, from the late Pampy's Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana

• Bananas Foster
• Bread pudding
• Beignets
• King Cake
• Doberge cake
• Pralines
• Pecan Pie
• Banana Pudding
• Peach Cobbler
• Blackberry Cobbler
• T-cakes

Beverages[link]

• Café Brûlot
• Café au lait
• Ramos Gin Fizz
• Sazerac cocktail

Breakfast[link]

Eggs Sardou with gulf shrimp added and grits on the side

• Calas
• Eggs Sardou
• Grits and Grillades
• French toast (Pain perdu)

See also[link]

This article is part of the series on
American cuisine
Regional cuisines Northeastern New England New Jersey New York City Philadelphia Midwestern Chicago North Dakota Omaha Southern (list) Cajun Floribbean Kentucky Louisiana Creole Lowcountry Soul food (list) Western California California fusion Pacific Northwest Rocky Mountain Southwestern New Mexican Tex-Mex Other Hawaiian Military rations Puerto Rican Roadkill Tailgate party
History Chuckwagon Culinary Revolution Thirteen Colonies
Ingredients Blueberry Corn Okra Pecan Pumpkin Sunflower seed
Styles Barbecue in the United States (Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, Carolinas) Fast food Fusion New American
Ethnic and cultural American Chinese Italian-American Jewish Native American Pennsylvania Dutch
Holidays and festivals Christmas Thanksgiving
United States portal
v t e

• Austin Leslie
• Cuisine of the United States
• Southern U.S. cuisine
• Barbecue
• Cajun cuisine
• Cuisine of Quebec

New Orleans restaurants[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• The full text and page images of Lafcadio Hearn's La Cuisine Creole can be found here at Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project.
• The full text and page images of Célestine Eustis's Cooking in Old Creole Days can be found here at Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project.
• Index of Creole & Cajun Recipes at Nola Cuisine

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2010)

Louisiana Creole (Kréyol La Lwizyàn) (français: Créole louisianais) is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.

Geography[link]

St. Martin Parish.

Creole-speaking parishes in Louisiana

Speakers of Louisiana Creole are mainly concentrated in south and southwest Louisiana, where the population of Creolophones is distributed across the region. There are also numbers of Creolophones in Natchitoches Parish on Cane River and sizable communities of Louisiana Creole-speakers in Southeast Texas Beaumont,Texas (Houston, Port Arthur, Galveston) and the Chicago area. California has the most Creole speakers of any state outside Louisiana, and the number of speakers may surpass that of Louisiana^{[dubious – discuss]}. Louisiana Creole speakers in California reside in Los Angeles, San Diego Riverside County and San Bernardino counties and in Northern California (Alameda, Berkeley,Oakland, San Jose, San Marino, Sacramento, San Francisco, Mendocino, Plumas, Tehama, Siskiyou, Napa, Sierra, Mono and Yuba counties; notably in Tennant, California).

Speaker demographics[link]

St. Martin Parish forms the heart of the Creole-speaking region. Other sizeable communities exist along Bayou Têche in St. Landry, Avoyelles,Iberia and St. Mary Parishes. There are smaller communities on False River in Terrebone Parish, Pointe-Coupée Parish], and along the lower Mississippi River in Ascension, St. Charles, and St. James and St.John the Baptist parishes (Klingler; Marshall; Valdman).

Grammar[link]

The grammar of Louisiana Creole is very similar to that of Haitian Creole. Definite articles in Louisiana Creole vary between the le, la and les used in standard French (a testament of possible decreolization in some areas) and a and la for the singular, and yé for the plural. In St. Martin Parish, the masculine definite article, whether le or -a, is often omitted altogether.

In theory, Creole places its definite articles after the noun, unlike French. Given Louisiana Creole's complex linguistic relationship with Colonial French and Cajun French, however, this is often no longer the case. Since there is no system of noun gender, articles only vary on phonetic criteria. The article a is placed after words ending in a vowel, and la is placed after words ending in a consonant.

Another aspect of Louisiana Creole which is unlike French is the lack of verb conjugation. Verbs do not vary based on person or number. Verbs vary based on verbal markers (e.g., té (past tense), sé (conditional), sa (future)) which are placed between the personal pronouns and conjugated verbs (e.g. mo té kourí au Villaj, "I went to Lafayette"). Frequently in the past tense, the verbal marker is omitted and one is left to figure out the time of the event through context.

Vocabulary[link]

The vocabulary of Louisiana Creole is of French, African, Native American and Spanish origin. Most local vocabulary, i.e. topography, animals, plants are of regional Amerindian origin - mostly substrata of the Choctaw or Mobilian Language group. The language possesses vestiges of west and central African languages (namely Bambara, Wolof, Fon) in folklore and in the religion of voodoo. The grammar, however, remains distinct from that of French (Midlo Hall; Klingler; Valdman).

Numbers[link]

Included are the French numbers for comparison.

Personal pronouns[link]

Greetings[link]

References[link]

• Brasseaux, Carl. French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana. (Bâton-Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005).
• Klingler, Thomas A. If I could turn my tongue like that: The Creole Language of Pointe-Coupée Parish, La. Bâton-Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.
• Marshall, Margaret. The Origin and Development of Louisiana Creole French: French and Creole in Louisiana. Ed. Valdman, Albert. New York: Plenum Press, 1997.
• Valdman, Albert. Valdman, Albert, et al. Dictionary of Louisiana Creole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
• Valdman, Albert, Thomas A. Klingler, Margaret M. Marshall, and Kevin J. Rottet (eds.). 1996. The Dictionary of Louisiana Creole. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

External links[link]

	Louisiana portal
	French language and French-speaking world portal
	Languages portal

• Learn Louisiana Creole Online (Kouri-Vini)
• Learn Pointe-Coupée Parish Creole
• Cane River Valley French
• Les Créoles de Pointe-Coupée
• Créoles Sans Limites
• Louisiana Creole Grammar
• Louisiana Creole French at Ethnologue
• Centenary University Bibliothèque Tintamarre Texts in Louisiana Creole

Footnotes[link]

State of Louisiana
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Bayou Stateʉۢ Child of the Mississippi Creole Stateʉۢ Pelican State (official) Sportsman's Paradiseʉۢ Sugar State
Motto(s): Union, Justice and Confidence Union, justice, et confiance (French) Lunyon, Jistis, é Konfyans (Louisiana Creole)
Official language(s)	None (English and French de facto)
Demonym	Louisianan, Louisianais (French) Lwizyané(èz) (Creole)
Capital	Baton Rouge
Largest city	New Orleans[1][2][3]
Largest metro area	Greater New Orleans
Area	Ranked 31st in the U.S.
- Total	51,843 sq mi (135,382 km2)
- Width	130 miles (210 km)
- Length	379 miles (610 km)
- % water	15
- Latitude	28°â€?56′ N to 33°â€?01′ N
- Longitude	88°â€?49′ W to 94°â€?03′ W
Population	Ranked 25th in the U.S.
- Total	4,574,836 (2011 est)[4]
- Density	105/sq mi  (40.5/km2) Ranked 24th in the U.S.
Elevation
- Highest point	Driskill Mountain[5][6] 535 ft (163 m)
- Mean	100 ft  (30 m)
- Lowest point	New Orleans[5][6] -8 ft (-2.5 m)
Before statehood	Territory of Orleans
Admission to Union	April 30, 1812 (18th)
Governor	Bobby Jindal (R)
Lieutenant Governor	Jay Dardenne (R)
Legislature	State Legislature
- Upper house	State Senate
- Lower house	House of Representatives
U.S. Senators	Mary Landrieu (D) David Vitter (R)
U.S. House delegation	6 Republicans, 1 Democrat (list)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Abbreviations	LA US-LA
Website	louisiana.gov

Louisiana (ⁱ/luË?ËŒiË?ziˈænÉ™/ or ⁱ/ËŒluË?ziˈænÉ™/; French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] ( listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.

Much of the state was formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp.^[7] These contain a rich southern biota; typical examples include birds such as ibis and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species including many species of orchids and carnivorus plants.^[7]

Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish, Native American (Indian) and African cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been a Spanish and French colony. In addition, the pattern of development included importing numerous African slaves in the 18th century, with many from the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture.

Toponym[link]

Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643–1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis".^[8] Once part of the French Colonial Empire, the Louisiana Territory stretched from present-day Mobile Bay to just north of the present-day Canadian border, and included a small part of what is now southwestern Canada.

Geology[link]

Even the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened. Louisiana was, then, slowly built, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. ^[7] The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in areas like Kistachie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back only to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago. The best history of the formation of these rocks can be found in Spearing, Geolgoical History of Lousiana^[9].

The youngest parts of the state were formed over the last 7,500 years as deltas of the Mississippi River: The Maringouin, Teche, St. Bernard, Lafourche, the modern Mississippi, and now the Atchafalaya^[10]. The sediments were carried from north to south by the Mississippi River.

In between the Tertiary rocks of the north, and the relatively new sediments along the coast, is a vast belt known as the Pleistocene Terraces. Their age and distribution can be largely related to the rise and fall of sea levels during past ice ages. In general, the northern terraces have had sufficient time for rivers to cut deep channels, while the newer terraces tend to be much flatter.^[11]

Salt domes are also found in Louisiana. Their origin can be traced back to the early Gulf of Mexico, when the shallow ocean had high rates of evaporation. There are several hundred salt domes in the state; one of the most familar is Avery Island.^[12] Salt domes are important not only as a source of salt; they also serve as underground traps for oil and gas.^[13]

Geography[link]

Map of Louisiana

Aerial view of Louisiana wetland habitats.

A field of yellow wildflowers in Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana

Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana

Topography[link]

Louisiana is bordered to the west by Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by the state of Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.

The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north, and the alluvial along the coast. The alluvial region includes low swamp lands, coastal marshlands and beaches, and barrier islands that cover about 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²). This area lies principally along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 miles (1,000 km) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; the Red River; the Ouachita River and its branches; and other minor streams (some of which are called bayous). The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles (15 to 100 km), and along the other rivers the alluvial region averages about 10 miles (15 km) across. The Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its own deposits (known as a levee), from which the lands decline toward a river beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile (3 m/km). The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features.

The higher and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles (65,000 km²). They consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet (3 m) at the coast and swamp lands to 50 and 60 feet (15–18 m) at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills, the elevations rise to Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state at only 535 feet (163 m) above sea level.

Besides the navigable waterways already named, there are the Sabine (Sah-BEAN), forming the western boundary; and the Pearl, the eastern boundary; the Calcasieu (KAL-cah-shew), the Mermentau, the Vermilion, Bayou Teche, the Atchafalaya (a-CHAF-a-LI-a), the Boeuf (bEHf), Bayou Lafourche, the Courtableau, Bayou D'Arbonne, the Macon, the Tensas (TEN-saw), Amite River, the Tchefuncte (CHA-Funk-ta), the Tickfaw, the Natalbany, and a number of other smaller streams, constituting a natural system of navigable waterways, aggregating over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) long.

The state also has political jurisdiction over the approximately 3-mile (4.8 km)-wide portion of subsea land of the inner continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Through a peculiarity of the political geography of the United States, this is substantially less than the 9-mile (14 km)-wide jurisdiction of nearby states Texas and Florida, which, like Louisiana, have extensive Gulf coastlines.^[14]

The southern coast of Louisiana in the United States is among the fastest disappearing areas in the world. This is largely a consequence of human mismanagement of the coast (see Wetlands of Louisiana). At one time, the land actually grew when spring floods from the Mississippi River added sediment and stimulated marsh growth; the land is now shrinking. There are multiple causes^[15] . Artificial levees now block spring flood water that would bring fresh water and sediment to marshes. Swamps have been extensively logged, leaving canals and ditches that allow saline water to move inland. Canals dug for the oil and gas industry also allow storms to move sea water inland where it damages swamps and marshes. Rising sea waters have exacerbated the problem. Some estimates conclude that the state is losing a land mass equivalent to 30 football fields every day. There are many proposals to save coastal areas by reducing human damage, including restoring natural floods from the Mississippi. Without such restoration, coastal communities will continue to disappear.^[16] And as the communities disappear, more and more people are leaving the region.^[17] Since the coastal wetlands also support an economically important coastal fishery, the loss of wetlands will also negatively affect this industry. Many other species of wildlife that depend upon wetlands will also be negatively affected, although there is little doubt that with its location at the mouth of the Mississippi River, Louisiana will continue to support vast areas of coastal wetlands and swamp forests. In spite of the acknowledged problems, coastal Louisiana still has many beautiful marshes and swamps for eco-tourists to explore,^[7] and no visit to Louisiana would be complete without a swamp tour to see wild alligators, or a boat excursion to see healthy populations of Brown Pelicans and Great Egrets.

Climate[link]

Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen climate classification Cfa), perhaps the most "classic" example of a humid subtropical climate of all the Southcentral states, with long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which even at its farthest point is no more than 200 miles (320 km) away. Precipitation is frequent throughout the year, although the summer is slightly wetter than the rest of the year. There is a dip in precipitation in October. Southern Louisiana receives far more copious rainfall, especially during the winter months. Summers in Louisiana are hot and humid, with high temperatures from mid-June to mid-September averaging 90 °F (32 °C) or more and overnight lows averaging above 70 °F (22 °C). In the summer, the extreme maximum temperature is much warmer in the north than in the south, with temperatures near the Gulf of Mexico occasionally reaching 100 °F (38 °C), although temperatures above 95 °F (35 °C) are commonplace. In northern Louisiana, the temperatures reach above 105 °F (41 °C) in the summer.

Temperatures are generally mildly warm in the winter in the southern part of the state, with highs around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the rest of south Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico averaging 66 °F (19 °C), while the northern part of the state is mildly cool in the winter with highs averaging 59 °F (15 °C). The overnight lows in the winter average well above freezing throughout the state, with 46 °F (8 °C) the average near the Gulf and an average low of 37 °F (3 °C) in the winter in the northern part of the state. Louisiana does have its share of cold fronts, which frequently drop the temperatures below 20 °F (−8 °C) in the northern part of the state, but almost never do so in the southern part of the state. Snow is not very common near the Gulf of Mexico, although those in the northern parts of the state can expect one to three snowfalls per year, with the frequency increasing northwards. Louisiana's highest recorded temperature is 114 °F (46 Â°C) in Plain Dealing on August 10, 1936 while the coldest recorded temperature is −16 °F (−27 Â°C) at Minden on February 13, 1899.

Louisiana is often affected by tropical cyclones and is very vulnerable to strikes by major hurricanes, particularly the lowlands around and in the New Orleans area. The unique geography of the region with the many bayous, marshes and inlets can make major hurricanes especially destructive. The area is also prone to frequent thunderstorms, especially in the summer. The entire state averages over 60 days of thunderstorms a year, more than any other state except Florida. Louisiana averages 27 tornadoes annually, some in part in 2010. The entire state is vulnerable to a tornado strike, with the extreme southern portion of the state slightly less so than the rest of the state. Tornadoes are much more common from January to March in the southern part of the state, and from February through March in the northern part of the state.^[18]

Hurricanes[link]

• September 1, 2008, Gustav made landfall along the Louisiana coast near Cocodrie in southeastern Louisiana. As late as August 31 it had been projected by the National Hurricane Center that the hurricane would remain at Category 3 or above on September 1, but in the event the center of Gustav made landfall as a strong Category 2 hurricane (1 mph below Category 3), and dropped to Category 1 soon after.^[19] As a result of NHC's forecasts there had been a massive evacuation of New Orleans amid warnings (for example from the city's mayor, Ray Nagin) that this would be the “storm of the centuryâ€?,^[20] potentially more devastating than Katrina almost exactly three years earlier, but these fears were not realised. Nevertheless, a significant number of deaths were caused by or attributed to Gustav,^[21] and around 1.5 million people were without power in Louisiana on September 1.^[22]
• September 24, 2005, Rita (Category 3 at landfall) struck southwestern Louisiana, flooding many parishes and cities along the coast, including Cameron Parish, Lake Charles, and other towns. The storm's winds further weakened the damaged levees in New Orleans and caused renewed flooding in parts of the city.
• August 29, 2005, Katrina (Category 3 at landfall)^[23] struck and devastated southeastern Louisiana, where it breached and undermined levees in New Orleans, causing 80% of the city to flood. Most people had been evacuated but the majority of the population became homeless. The city was virtually closed until October. It is estimated that more than two million people in the Gulf region were displaced by the hurricane, and that more than 1,500 fatalities resulted in Louisiana alone. A public outcry criticized governments at the local, state, and federal levels, citing that preparation and response was neither fast nor adequate. The effects of the hurricane scattered Louisiana residents across the country.