True American cuisine can be summed up in one word...... Creole.

   In honor of the upcoming "holiday"; Mardi Gras, I want to take a look at what I consider the only true cuisine we can call American; Creole.  Creole cuisine encompasses what America is; a melting pot of culture that has more than 500 years of immigration to be thankful for.  A cuisine that is rich in history; from the African plantation servants, Native American tribes, the French explorers, being part of the Spanish Empire, the Acadian migration all the way to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  During the centuries of various rulers and colonies, New Orleans maintained one constant; a major trade port that explorers and traders from Europe to South America used.  All leaving behind a piece of the heritage that New Orleans soaked in like a sponge and adapted to their own; particularly their cuisine. 

       New Orleans and Louisiana is home to many Native American tribes, archeological research proves inhabitants dating back to 400 AD.  Up until the late 1600s, tribes lived along the Mississippi and traded with one another.  In the late 1600s, French explorers had moved there and set up colonies in the mouth of the bayou.  In 1722, Nouvelle-Orléans was made the capital of French Louisiana.  With the settlement of the French, they brought along their traditional cooking methods and ingredients of marinating, stocks, salts, sweets, pastries and sauces.  Much of the population of early New Orleans was made up of Native Americans, Trappers and Pirates who never left, described by Governors of the time as "general riffraff." 

       From 1762 until 1768, New Orleans was more or less lawless.  Spanish had taken rule, however they were ran out by German and French settlers who attempted to restore French rule unsuccessfully.  In 1769, the Spanish retook order executing several ring leaders and incarcerating many others involved with the uprisings in Cuba.  The United States fresh off its victory over Britain in the Revolutionary war in 1783; made quick of striking a deal with the Spanish to use the Port of New Orleans as a trade route in 1795.

      At this point, New Orleans has had 100 years of immigration of French, Spanish and African; who have all left their stamp on the New Orleans cuisine.  Rice, Beans and Peppers were brought to New Orleans and quickly adapted from the very frequent trips between New Orleans and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean.  Shellfish, alligators and fowl were already indigenous to the area and were the most commonly eaten proteins.  French explorers had brought their use of stocks to create stews, flour and animal fat mixture to thicken sauces and stews, mustard to flavor meat and of course their desserts.  Africans didn't add a whole lot to the culinary world; their influence was much more prominent on the culture through music and art. 

     Over the next 20 years, the city of New Orleans really began to show its individuality; far from the norm, New Orleans was very liberal within the city limits.  Slavery was still very prominent in the sugar and cotton plantations surrounding the city, however there was a large population of free blacks as well; which led to a new generation of cross ethnicity children which was a very foreign concept to the rest of the new world.  In the early 1800s, a large population of Cuban and Haitian people settled in New Orleans to escape unrest in their countries. Bringing along with them, not only slaves of various backgrounds but their foods as well; many who migrated to New Orleans were farmers.  Due to the Haitian and Cuban migration, New Orleans’ population doubled and the most common language spoken was once again French.

     With the building of the railroad system, the immigration to New Orleans boomed bringing in large amounts of German, Irish and Italian settlers.  And with them their indigenous food such as potatoes, pasta and tomatoes.

      By the mid 1800's, New Orleans’ population had boomed to over 100,000 people.  In a short tumultuous and ever changing 160 years, New Orleans had gone from being inhabited by Native Americans to its own entity far different from any other part of the world.  With its Native American and French roots, rapid migration of  Haitian, Cuban, Spanish, Italian, Irish, German, French-Canadian, and African,  the need for self sustainability from constant change in politics and what you have is small view of what America would become; a melting pot of culture.  Highlighted by this one city; that always adapted and used whatever resources were available, where the cuisine is defined by several generations of cross culture; that can be picked apart and each component can be directly tied to a particular culture; indigenous roots lie several thousand miles apart, all come together in a short period of time into one harmonious, comforting yet confusing cuisine.

      In the coming days, I’ll be posting some traditional Creole recipes.