Louisiana is home to both Cajun and Creole cultures, and the two share many similarities. After all, you can enjoy a bowl of gumbo at either a Cajun or Creole restaurant. Both cuisines celebrate Louisiana’s rich land and sea resources, and both are constantly evolving.
There are important differences between Cajun and Creole cuisine, which are reflected in the dishes served in restaurants and at home. Here’s what you need to know.
History of Cajun Cuisine
The Cajun region, also known as Acadiana, is a 22-parish region located in southwestern Louisiana. The original Acadians were farmers who lived mostly in rural areas west of France and grew tired of French rule. In the 17th century, many moved to Acadia, in what is now Nova Scotia. When the colony came under British rule in the mid-18th century, thousands of Acadians were forcibly exiled to European and British colonies as part of the “Great Disorder,” the expulsion of the Acadians. They ended up in Louisiana, which was then a Spanish province.
These settlers may have brought traditional French recipes with them, but their cooking evolved. “[The Cajuns] had crawfish, crabs, pork, and sugar. They had to learn to use those things or they would starve,” says Isaac Toups, chef and owner of Toups’ Meatery in New Orleans, who grew up in a Cajun family in Lane, Louisiana.
Mirepoix, the French base of carrots, onions, and celery, is a forced evolution.
“Carrots don’t grow in a swamp,” Toups says with a laugh. “Today, our ‘holy trinity’ is celery, onions, and bell peppers. We add ‘the pope’s hat,’ which is garlic. I think garlic is one of the most important ingredients in Cajun cooking.”
“We don’t mix land and sea either,” he continues. “We don’t have seafood in our chicken gumbo, and we don’t have meat in our couvillion [another word for court-bouillon, a sauce used to stew seafood or meat]. We don’t put tomatoes in our gumbo. However, I think people do make a fuss about these unwritten rules. As Cajuns, we’ve always broken the rules. When you have immigrant food, you have to let it evolve.”
History of Creole Cuisine
While Cajun culture specifically refers to French settlers in Acadiana and their descendants, the origins of Creole culture are harder to pin down.
In 17th-century New Orleans, the term referred to people born in the New World before the founding of the United States to parents born elsewhere, such as European immigrants and enslaved Africans. The term also referred to the descendants of these first-generation Americans.
“The term Creole comes from colonial America, and in Louisiana, you always see traces of French heritage in Creoles,” says Eric Seiferth, curator and historian at the New Orleans Historical Collection.
“You rarely see people refer to their European ancestry as Creoles in other parts of the country, but in the 19th century, they did, and people in Louisiana still do it today,” Seiferth says. “So, the term referred to people with French, Spanish, African and/or Native American ancestry. It can be a misunderstood term now.” Creole cuisine is often more closely associated with the city of New Orleans than with the rural areas surrounding the city.
When it comes to cuisine, people may misunderstand that Creole cuisine is just upscale Cajun cuisine. That’s not true.
“It’s not completely false,” says Tommy DiGiovanni, executive chef at Arnaud’s for 27 years. Arnaud’s opened in 1918 and has 17 luxurious dining rooms that can accommodate more than 1,000 guests. It is arguably the premier Creole fine-dining restaurant in the United States and one of the largest in the country.
“Like the Cajuns, the Creoles came from refugees and immigrants,” DiGiovanni said. “New Orleans was a thriving port city. It had access to both the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico,” so seafood ingredients like oysters and fresh fish were plentiful.
The cosmopolitan nature of Creole culture also led to its recipes having more European influences, such as brandy, rum and dairy products, DiGiovanni said.
What is the difference between Cajun and Creole cuisine?
While Creole and Cajun recipes differ in how they are prepared, these are some of the common differences you might find between the two cuisines.
Ingredients
Both Cajun and Creole cuisine rely on the aforementioned “holy trinity” of onions, celery, and bell peppers as the foundation for dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice. They also share many other ingredients, such as rice and smoked andouille sausage.
In addition, both Cajun and Creole cultures were influenced by free people of color, enslaved Africans, and Native American tribes. For example, filé powder or sassafras leaf powder, a common gumbo thickener, was a contribution of the Choctaw Native Americans and other Native Americans. Okra was brought to Louisiana by slaves from Africa.
How do these dishes differ? “Tomatoes are important to the Creoles,” DiGiovanni says, “and crawfish is a staple in Cajun cuisine.” Cajun cuisine is often considered spicier than Creole cuisine, thanks to ingredients like chili and black pepper. Garlic and smoked pork are also common flavors in Cajun cuisine.
Creole cooking often incorporates more dairy products, such as butter and cream.
Both cuisines use roux, a mixture of fat and flour, in dishes like gumbo. However, while Creole roux may be made with butter and flour like the French, Cajun roux is often made with oil and lard or flour and cooked longer to develop more flavor. As a result, Cajun stews and soups tend to be darker in color than their Creole counterparts.
Gumbo
Both cultures have gumbo, but in Cajun regions, seafood gumbo is referred to as “stew.” Creole gumbo often includes tomatoes, while Cajun recipes don’t. Due to the aforementioned differences in the batter styles, Creole gumbo is usually thinner in texture, while Cajun gumbo is thicker and darker in color. Creole gumbo recipes may include andouille sausage and shrimp, while Cajun gumbo is meat-based, including andouille sausage and chicken.
Cajun Seasoning vs. Creole Seasoning
Traditional Cajun seasoning usually includes cayenne pepper, black pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt. Creole seasoning is similar, but also tends to include more dried herbs, such as ground thyme, basil, and oregano.
Common Dishes
Creole dishes include shrimp bisque, turtle soup, beignets, bread pudding and creamy oyster stew. A Cajun might serve you country-style catfish soup, alligator sausage or jambalaya.
If you’re really lucky, you might be invited to a Cajun boucherie, a community ritual where a fat pig is slaughtered and prepared with the townspeople.
Both Creole and Cajun cuisines are hard to define. “Both cuisines have their roots in immigration and, in a way, have been evolving,” DiGiovanni says. “In the 1930s and 1940s, the Italians came here. In the 1980s, Louisiana had a Vietnamese population. After Hurricane Katrina, the Hispanic community flourished.”
“Then you have to ask, ‘What is Creole to them? What is Cajun? How did they influence it?’ You can find Creole in a restaurant with white tablecloths, and you can find it in a dive bar. Is red beans and rice Creole? Sure. Bread pudding? Yes. Is fried chicken? Maybe? It’s soul food, too. It’s Cajun, too. These cuisines are often shared and varied.”
As for Toups, he has one hard and fast rule. “If you put tomatoes in my gumbo, it’s not right. But if it’s good, I’ll definitely eat it.”
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