Taylor

Cajun Food: Justin Wilson
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A paper submitted to Webber International University in partial fulfillment for
Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration

By: Hector Blasco
Date: October 21, 2012
Course: MGT 325
Semester: Fall 2012
Instructor: Dr. Othoson
To understand something about the Cajun culture in Louisiana and howit grew up, we should do a retrospective view about their roots and their traditions during the history. Also, Cajun cuisine has many influences from different culture before came a knowing cuisine in the United States.
No other area in the south of United States has so influenced by French heritage as a foundational and enduring part of its culture. The Cajuns are an ethnic group set inLouisiana, southern U.S. They are descendants from the Acadian exiles after their deportation by the British (Henry, 1998). Furthermore, this Acadians were the descendants from the French colonist who settled in Acadia, a colony of New France in Canada. The Cajuns now include people with ancestry of British, Spanish, German, Italian, Native American, Métis and French Creole settlers (Hill & Barclay,2008).
Language change was part of a broader process of Acadian acceptance of Anglo influence on the public culture of Louisiana When the Acadians settled up in the state of Louisiana, they used to call between them “Cadiens”, but the syllable “di” is pronounced as a “j” in French. After few decades was heard the Cadien name as Cajun (History of the Cajun). However there are some groups in theLouisiana who still speaking the variety of French that was spoken by the Acadians.
All these influences in the Cajun culture have influenced the Cajun cuisine too. Most of the cajuns settled in Louisiana brought their cuisine, along with French gastronomy, African and Spanish, Mediterranean and some features of the Italian part of the "Creole Cuisine." According with Ten Eyck (2001) said, theCajun cuisine “is what could be called a rustic cuisine”. Cajun people used to get their food from their own property. They used to prepare it in a big melting pot usually dedicated to the main dish with locally available ingredients predominate, and the preparation is simple which is characterized by hot and spicy (Ten Eyck, 2001). The Cajun cuisine it is based on three dishes: the main dish,another with rice, corn bread or cereal, and the third with some vegetables. The star ingredients are onions, celery and peppers. These three are chopped finely and combined in a manner similar to that prepared the “mirepoix” (set of cut vegetables into small cubes about 1 cm in thickness used for flavoring sauces. The vegetables used are carrots, onions and celery) in French cuisine (Azcoytia, n.d.).There are a number of ingredients used in the main dishes in Cajun cuisine. These are primarily fish, pork, chicken, turkey or shrimp.
The great triumph of this cuisine is that the city was changing hands peacefully, first French, then Spanish, later again and finally the French American, always leaving its inhabitants who were adapting to taste the cuisine of their new masters, enrichingnaturally and without transition all their dishes.
Lot of people used to confuse the Creole and Cajun cuisine because both of them become from how the European immigrants (Ten Eyck, 2001). Creole cuisine used to prepared the dishes with basic ingredients such as fish, shellfish, oysters and shrimp (crawfish), which characterize it as a more refined and subtle kitchen and Cajun is more of a commoncuisine, they rarely prepare their traditional dishes according to written recipes. The European immigrants show the Acadians the process to extract the sugar from the plant, so they understood the idea of cuisine that they have to mix food with fun. Most of the Cajuns spend the weekends with the family and neighbors, making traditional Cajun food, playing music and dancing (Curtis, 2007). This Cajun...