A.4 African cooks

The Compagnie des Indes, which controlled the colony, brought some two thousand enslaved Africans from West Africa and the West Indies by 1744. African cooks carried a skilled tradition of their own. By the 1500s, West African farmers grew a long list of crops.

• corn
• peanuts
• yams
• eggplant
• garlic and onions
• kidney beans
• rice
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• leafy greens
• okra
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Their food was cooked long and slowly and served with delicate sauces.

Okra, called kingombo, is thought to have come to the Americas with enslaved Africans. When it was in season it thickened the gumbo; for the rest of the year filé powder did that job. Gumbo z'herbes, a gumbo of many greens and herbs loved by Catholic families in Louisiana, comes from a similar African dish. An old saying promises a new friend for every different green in the pot.

By 1743, when a new governor known as the Grand Marquis arrived, New Orleans had a polished Creole society. The governor's circle brought chefs from France and impressed local leaders with grand feasts in the style of the French court.