A.7 Hard times, tourists and a revival

Creole cooking as it is known today was settled between 1800 and 1860. By 1840 New Orleans ranked fourth in size among American cities and second among its ports, and it was one of the first American cities with public restaurants. Its hotel dining rooms served both continental and Creole food.

The Civil War left the Creoles poor, but they still loved to eat and to entertain. Without money for fine meat, they made gumbo out of fresh vegetables plus a bit of leftover chicken or seafood. When coffee grew dear, refugees from Napoleonic France showed them how to roast chicory root to stretch it.

From the 1950s to the early 1970s, tourism helped the city's economy but nearly ruined its food. Restaurants made a milder version for visitors.

• Chicory left the coffee.
• Filé and slow-cooked crab and oyster left the gumbo.
• Black pepper replaced red.
• Shortcuts crept in, such as red sauce from canned tomato paste.
• Visitors got eggs Benedict at brunch instead of grillades and grits.

Real Creole cooking lived on in homes and in neighborhood and family restaurants.

In the 1980s food writers wanted something new, and Creole and Cajun food suddenly became fashionable across the country. It was cheap, quite easy to cook, and nothing like the elegant food of the years before.

That fame had a cost. Across much of America, Creole came to suggest blackened fish and meat, heavy fiery seasoning, and a red sauce much like one from a can. A writer from south Louisiana noted that the dishes local families had eaten for generations went largely unnoticed by the new fans.