Got Gumbo?, Cook-Off ‘08 January 21, 2008

So, it all comes down to this. I half heartedly started a blog about a year ago that solely concentrated on gumbo. I wrote a few reviews, took a few photos, and let it slip to the side. I decided to give it another try in 2008 and found no better way to get back involved than to review the 8th annual United Way “Got Gumbo?” cook-off. The event was at the Chateau Senesta Hotel in New Orleans on 1.18.08 and featured 15 varieties of gumbo. It was a great night to say the least. Taking pictures was difficult due to the cramped conditions and crowd but I managed to get a few candid shots and some closeups. I made it known to each chef what my intentions were and they were all extremely cordial and helpful in my research. I look forward to doing this again next year.

Dickie Brennan’s Palace Café

Labeled as “Swamp Gumbo”, this dark roux gumbo was a muddy mix of alligator stock, frog legs, turtle andouille, and topped with alligator boudin in a flaky pastry. The presentation was exceptional which included a boiled frog leg in every serving. Don’t get me wrong. I love frog legs. A lot. However in a gumbo they can be a bit cumbersome because of the work of getting the meat off the bone. Next time they should stick to frying up the legs for a lunch special or taking the meat off the bone and adding directly into the pot. I loved the use of the alligator boudin pastry in place of traditional white rice. Overall it had a thick, rich roux with minimal spice which was a good contribution to the event. You could tell they were trying hard to make an impression.

Saltwater Grill & Seafood Market

The two gentlemen representing the Saltwater Grill on Carrollton Avenue obviously had their act together and a KISS plan of attack. That meaning, “Keep It Simple Stupid.” In the words of Dwight Schrute, “Great advice. Hurts my feelings every time.” The operation was indicative of their entire restaurant operation. I’m not saying they’re slinging poor quality chow, all I mean is that the atmosphere in their home base and style of gumbo are very basic and standard. The owners are proud of both of these points. The gumbo was a traditional seafood staple with little variation from the textbook. The shrimp were a little tough but there were plenty of them and the amount of spice was perfect. The roux was also a good balance between dark and light. The only seafood was shrimp but they didn’t try and cover that up with fillers. They did make a point to explain that they take pride in always adding okra into their recipe since, technically speaking, a gumbo cannot exist without okra. These boys were traditional purists who had done their homework. If a yankee came to the Gulf Coast to try gumbo looking a standard flavor, this is one to try.

Desire Oyster Bar

You could definitely tell when a restaurant came to just compete and have a good time and when one came to win. These guys came packing gumbo, bread pudding with a whiskey sauce, and all the free shirts, aprons, and sauces you could carry. I liked them immediately. The head gumbo chef was proud of his private recipe, which included andoulle sausage, oysters, shrimp, crabmeat, shrimp stock, and chicken stock. It was served over white rice. The roux, if you could call it that, had a rich tomato basil flavor that was almost like thick soup or seafood bisque. The tomato was almost overpowering but I got the feeling he was aware of this and it wasn’t the normal amount in their house recipe. The chef was very aware of the okra standard in gumbo and explained how people have it wrong when they hearken to the cliché, “it takes a roux..” He instead suggested that you should look to the okra for your answers on how to create the most traditional and flavorful gumbo. Overall it had a unique seafood and tomato bisque flavor and was very filling. It was certainly more of a New Orleans variety and not something you would find in Cajun country.

Chef Raymond Signal

Raymond has his life all figured out. When questioned about his motives for entering a contest dominated by globally renowned chefs he simply smiled, called me a “college boy” and said that he didn’t have to impress anyone but himself. Until I met him I thought the event was for restaurateurs only. I’m glad that wasn’t the case. Raymond decided that his private recipe was better than any hoity-toity restaurant, so he packed his pot and headed to the big city. The gumbo was a rich variety of meats and seafood that included tasso spiced ham, boudin sausage of a mild and hot variations, jumbo lump crabmeat, and shrimp. For those not familiar, tasso ham is not taken from the leg of a pig, but instead from the shoulder butt. His shrimp tasted like they were cooked a few days ago and refrigerated. You can always tell if this is the case by the toughness of the shrimp. The roux was of standard fare and it was lacking in spice. What set this apart was the use of two different types of pork sausages which when combined, added a unique flavor. He also used Jasmine rice and says it’s much better than regular long grain white rice because it’s lighter and has more of a flavor unto itself. I don’t know about a flavor, but it is lighter. I felt like he should have chosen to go the direction of the ham and sausage or seafood. Mixing an equal amount of both in the same pot was a confusion of tastes that should had been made into two separate dishes. I liked his style but I’ve had better gumbo.

The Diplomat Bar & Grill

Designated as “Creole Gumbo”, this variation had a very standard flavor and look but was based around Louisiana Creole tomatoes and okra. Designated under the category of ‘Seafood’ gumbo, it contained shrimp, oysters, crabmeat, okra, and diced/stewed tomatoes. The roux landed right in the middle of dark or light styles and the spice was the perfect amount. I was pleased to see that no one really overly spiced their gumbo. Leave that to the people I always say. This was a good sampling of what Creole gumbo is supposed to look and taste like.

Arnaud’s

The chef was proud to call his entry “Kitchen Sink Gumbo.” It was indeed and all that a title like that entails. The ingredients included a healthy serving of crab, shrimp, andoulle sausage, chicken, turkey necks, and pork necks for added flavor. I was impressed with the great balance created with overall flavor, spice, and roux. Unlike Chef Signals, this seafood and meat creation had more of an organic fusion that blended very well together. I think it was the simmering of parsley and thyme that made a mesh of all of the powerful ingredients. The flavors supported each other instead of tasting uniquely different like in Signals. I was also impressed that they not only brought white rice, but yellow potato salad to use in place of rice. I first saw this when I moved to New Orleans and have yet to get a direct answer of who created it and where exactly. Personally I love the taste of gumbo mixed with a non-heavily mayonnaised potato salad. The chef said he recommends mixing both potato salad and rice, “cause that’s what my wife likes to do.” He said it’s great when you need a quick carbohydrate fix. He ain’t lying neither. Their particular variety of potato salad had too much mayonnaise for my taste, but I still loved that they brought the option to the table and recommended it with confidence. They were also one of two tables that had a jar of file out on the table to thicken or add extra flavor to your gumbo. I asked him if he uses it and why it’s used in the first place. He explained that he likes to use file in his gumbo just like he recommends cilantro in other dishes. The idea is to bring out more of the natural flavors using an all-natural spice. For those readers who don’t know, file is powdered sassafras root that turns a dark green. These guys really knew their stuff and their gumbo was my favorite that was not strictly seafood.

Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill

I was immediately intrigued when I met this chef. It wasn’t his chain-smoking raspy Cajun voice so much as it was the swamp log of mushrooms on his table. Come to find out they were “oyster mushrooms” fresh from Honey Island on the LA/MS border. He was serving up a crawfish gumbo that featured chopped oyster mushrooms, boiled crawfish tails, crawfish sausage (crawfish sausage!), and fried crawfish tails. The fried crawfish tails were used in place of rice and were only added to the gumbo when it was being served. This was a great idea because it kept the fried tails from getting soggy. I was blown away by the amount of local fresh herbs that he used which created a very thin roux, but added an earthy swamp flavor that tastes like what St. Bernard Parish smells like. He also didn’t add any spice, but the natural earthy ingredients were more the point than Cajun spice. The crawfish also had a very fresh and not frozen taste and texture. I would classify this as Bayou Gumbo.

Savvy Gourmet

With the word “Savvy” in the name of your restaurant, you almost have to be gimmicky and exploratory. They did not disappoint the crowds with the concept of their pulled pork and collard green gumbo. They did however disappoint the good peoples taste buds. In addition to the pork and greens, the gumbo also featured andouille sausage and was topped with bacon crumbles and served over rice. As an Alabamian, I was offended by perfectly good pulled pork being made into a gumbo and not into a barbeque sandwich. I see what they were going for. I get it. It simply didn’t work. If you like pork stew and not gumbo, this concoction is for you.

Acme Oyster House

I always viewed the gumbo at acme as merely served out of necessity because the tourists expect to see it on the menu. The entry that they brought was their standard seafood gumbo featuring shrimp, crabmeat, celery, okra, and garlic. It was served over white rice. By definition it had the right stuff, but what it lacked was the love or soul that these other chefs obviously poured into their creations. I felt like this gumbo, although tasty, was just going through the motions. I recommend they stay home next year and concentrate on doing what they do best: serving oysters to drunken tourists from Ohio who wears Mardi Gras beads in the summer.

Bourbon House

After Acme and the Savvy pork stew, this gumbo put me back on track. The head gumbo chef had obviously taken lesson from the Soup Nazi on how to deal with the general public. When a passerby made the comment that he had not seen this particular gumbo on the menu at Bourbon House, the chef kindly recommended that he either take a bowl or move along. He didn’t have time for chit-chat. His recipe included okra, tomatoes, brown gulf shrimp, and crawfish. It was served over a mouthwatering scoop of crawfish dressing. That’s no typo. His brown Gulf shrimp were also the most fresh and tender out of any other contestants. I made this point to the chef who laughed and commented that yes, I was correct in my statement, and that the reason was “’cause all the other sucka’s cooked theirs two days ago!” The trick was to break up the crawfish dressing and let the roux saturate the flavor into the bread. I was extremely impressed with the flavor and spice of this unique crawfish and shrimp gumbo.

Chateua Sonesta

I went into this entry treating it like the “house brand” of the competition. Like they gave them a seat at the table as a courtesy since they were the hosts. I was surprised that they came to play ball and even had one of the best rice varieties of the night. The chef classified the gumbo as seafood and it included fresh shrimp, spicy sausage, and a nice amount of spice. What set this apart was the dirty ‘oyster rice’ that the gumbo was served on. I really think the rice could have been served as a stand-alone side dish. In the words of the chef, the rice contained “an obscene amount of oysters” and this was a great flavor that complimented the gumbo. Not the best of the night, but I liked how they used a traditional ingredient and blended it into the rice, thus blending it into the main dish. A lot of times when oysters are just thrown into a pot they don’t add flavor unless you actually get one in your spoon. This gave the entire dish a tasty subtle oyster flavor.

Café Adelaide

There was certainly a French vibe coming from this corner of the ballroom. Not only did the chef sound French, but he also acted like it was my fault that I didn’t already know what his ingredients were and how his gumbo was made. He simply pointed to the sign, which listed a few of the ingredients and handed me a portion with a smirk. It was labeled as “smokin’ goose and oyster gumbo.” Goose in gumbo? It reminded me of a big budget film with a plot that goes nowhere. The oysters were huge and it had a good amount of spice but the flavor tasted like a sauce that should be smothered over a roasted goose. It also had chanterelle mushrooms and was served over “foie gras dirty rice.” For those red-blooded freedom fry eating Americans, foie gras is the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened by “gavage”, or better known as force-feeding. Proper fois gras is serious business as it is written into law in France through French rural code L654-27-1. The dish had a rich smokey goose flavor and thick consistency, but it wasn’t what I would classify as gumbo. I would classify it as goose gravy served over goose rice. I moved on.

Black Velvet Oyster Bar & Grill

Enter Rachel Marinovich, the most likeable cook at the event. Divorce attorney, beer drinker, LSU fan, gumbo chef. I had a crush on her immediately. Her variety of gumbo was what I dubbed “tailgate gumbo” because of its distinct smell, ingredients, spice, flavor, and attitude. I don’t know if it was the love involved in making it or the obvious smell and taste of beer, but this gumbo tasted like Death Valley on a Saturday night. The recipe called for chicken, beef, shrimp, sausage, and obviously whatever tigerbait you could find. The spice and roux complimented each other well in what was an Acadian type flavor. She also served her gumbo over yellow rice and explained that she would gladly use yellow and purple rice if she could find it. Well played madam. When questioned about her recipe and motives for entering the contest she simply smiled and explained, “If there was more good gumbo, there would be less divorces.” We exchanged phone numbers are due to be wed in the spring. I won’t tell her I’m an Alabama fan until after the honeymoon.

Brennan’s

Class, class, class. These guys are the Rolls-Royce of the gumbo world and their professionalism exuded in their attitude, presentation, and confidence in their gumbo. Lazone Randolph, Brennan’s executive chef, came to make sure the event went swimmingly. He was a gracious host and explained that they came to impress and would not leave satisfied unless they had the first place award. I was happy to see they brought their standard seafood gumbo served at the main restaurant and didn’t go for the cheap entry with frills or some hail marry experiment. Chef Randolph simply explained that they used to do that, but after years of being in the business they finally got it right. And since they know they have the best, there was no reason to be nervous about their product. I’ll tell you right now, they did not disappoint. They do not use a roux, but instead focus more on fresh ingredients and the combinations of herbs and spices. It had a hint of tomato but it was balanced well with the other ingredients creating a gumbo that wasn’t too heavy. The clincher was after the gumbo was poured over the white rice, a heaping portion of fresh jumbo lump crabmeat was added as the finisher. They keep the crab separate as to not dilute the flavor as it cooks with the rest of the gumbo. This was a good choice as it added a great fresh crab flavor. It was obvious that this recipe had been fine tuned over decades and it was the crowd favorite for a good reason.

Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse

You stick to what you know. If Pizza Hut entered a gumbo, I would fully expect it to be pizza gumbo. This was the strategy of Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse and the dividends paid off. The entry brought by Jack Martinez, the executive chef, was a bold and rich “exotic bayou gumbo” featuring rabbit, duck breast, wild boar, and a sausage made of alligator, blue crab, and brown shrimp. Chef Martinez was proud of his entry and explained that as a restaurant that is known for red meat, he thought this gumbo would represent their menu. It was rich and meaty enough to be served as a meal by itself. The dish was served over white rice in a flaky bread bowl. This gumbo would be the perfect side with a steak and bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.