Chef Paul Prudhomme rolled into town for the Denver Food & Wine Classic Friday, dressed in his trademark white from head to toe. One of the first true celebrity chefs, Prudhomme, 70, found fame with his New Orleans restaurant, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen and his “blackened” seasoning style. With cookbooks and television appearances, he taught a generation of cooks and diners what Cajun food tastes like.
On Friday, he gave a group of Metro State and high school ProStart students a lesson in how to make a roux and how to sustain a culinary career. Many of the younger students missed his rise to fame but came away charmed and inspired. “I learned a lot about the roux thing,” said Jordan Gallegos, 16, of Horizon High School. “I liked him, he gets to grubbin’.” (Translation: He likes to eat.)
Northglenn High School student Aaron Strock, 17, found inspiration in Prudhomme’s advice for life in and out of the kitchen. “I liked what he said about staying true to yourself.”
Like his recipes, Prudhomme’s message in his cooking demonstration and his preshow interview centered on staying true to one’s roots. He left Louisiana after his first restaurant and marriage failed, and spent several years traveling the country, with stops in Boulder, Arvada and Denver kitchens in the early 1970s.
He eventually returned to New Orleans and the Brennan family kitchen at Commander’s Palace, where he met his late wife, K. They went on to open K-Paul’s in 1979 in the French Quarter, where it still operates. In the meantime, Prudhomme created a line of spice blends, hosted a public-TV cooking show and wrote nine cookbooks.
“I’m not kidding you when I say that none of that happened on purpose,” says Prudhomme. “People would say I want one of your recipes, so we would give it to them.”
Q: About blackening: You can confidently say that you created that?Confidently? (Laughing.) There is no doubt about that. It first came about when I was at Commander’s. It hadn’t been totally understood. I wanted to do that, and they said no, it’s an awful name. I am not a pushy guy, except for my food, and doing it right. In blackening fish, you gotta have fresh, and you gotta have it out of the refrigerator — it can’t be cold — because it cooks quickly.
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Q: You work in research and development, what’s new in food?Right now, what we have to do is pull down the sugar and the salt. There’s so much salt in our food, it’s damaging people we don’t know how much. I would like to have a seasoning blend that doesn’t have any sugar in it. If you do the right thing with the seasoning, if you put them together right, without the salt and the sugar, you can make it work.
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Q: Your focus has shifted toward healthier foods, both in your work and in your personal life.On my 55th birthday, I weighed 580 pounds. In my head, I started rambling about how much I know about food. I eat well, I know what not to eat. I gradually learned I need a lot less food in my body than I did. In the past, I used a spoon about that big (holding up a fist) for tasting. Now I use a teaspoon.
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Q: It’s not like you swore off butter.No, I will have butter but very, very, very small amounts. I know how to use it, where to put it.
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Q: Do you exercise? (Prudhomme uses a scooter and a cane to protect his worn-out knees.)It took 15 years to get down. I have a gym in my garage. I do treadmills, I do elliptical.
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Q: How is the seafood industry in the gulf doing?Remarkably wonderfully. We were on the dock when the shrimp were coming up. And lemme tell you, I know shrimp. The shrimp smell was great. They had 1 5/20s — do you know what that is? It means 15 to 20 of those make a pound. That’s a big dude!
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Q: How do you keep your chef whites so white?You just continually work on that. I brought with me all I need to clean them. All my clothes are way too big, but I refuse to change it until I get down to 175. When I get to 180 or so, I’m going to get all new clothes.
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Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
