Holiday Gift Suggestion - Chasing the Gator

It’s refreshing to read a cookbook authentic to Cajun lifestyles, a way of life that directly relates to the food cooked, served and eaten in Cajun Country/South Louisiana. Chef Isaac Toups grew up in Rayne, son of a "Prairie Cajun" and a "Coastal Cajun," and, even though he runs two restaurants in New Orleans, his debut cookbook screams down-home Cajun.

The chapters in "Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking" say it all — The Boucherie, Community Table, Homestead, Fish Camp and Hunt Camp, — full of recipes and cooking instructions, plus Toups’ crazy anecdotes and Boudreaux jokes. The dishes represent the heart and soul of Cajun cooking, basically what Toups describes as what people catch and what people grow, accented by “in-your-face flavor.”

“'Cajun is a lifestyle, it’s a mindset, it’s an area, and it’s a people,” Toups writes in the introduction. “This isn’t the history of classic Cajun food. That’s another book. This is the story of a young wild Cajun and the experiences that made me the cook I am today.”

Naturally, there’s lots of pork dishes, wild game, seafood from the state's wetlands, lakes and bayous and the trademark boudin (Note: His comments about where boudin is best will surely cause a fight). But what makes this cookbook special are the wonderful photos of how to stuff sausage, pick crabs, cut open a pig for roasting and cleaning fish. It’s a joy to read as much to use for cooking instruction.

Toups wrote the book with Jennifer V. Cole, a native of Mississippi and a deputy editor at Southern Living magazine. Toups has been named a James Beard Best Chef of the South Semi-Finalist or Finalist since opening his New Orleans restaurant, Toups’ Meatery in 2012 with his wife, Amanda. He was named an Eater Young Gun of the South, Eater New Orleans Chef of the Year and a Top Chef fan favorite, not to mention an advocate for preserving America’s wetlands.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "Emilie," book one of The Cajun Series, "Ticket to Paradise," book one of The Cajun Embassy series and "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.