[OPINION] Why Must People Fight About Gumbo?

A Big Gumbo ArgumentPhoto byDavid ClodeonUnsplash

I recently published a gumbo recipe on a national level that I said was for people who don't live in South Louisiana. I meant by that, that those readers may not have access to the bounty of smoked sausage, seafood, jarred roux, green onions from the garden, a gazillion choices of hot sauce, good rice, fresh bell peppers, and all the wonderful things we are blessed with in South Louisiana to make a good pot of gumbo.

The backlash was amazing! I was told that based on this recipe, I am not from South Louisiana, I don't know anything about gumbo, and I'm basically a fraud. Well, I am from South Louisiana and I know about gumbo.

I know that I have never made gumbo exactly the same way twice. That means that approximately 100 pots of gumbo have suffered in my hands. I have to change the recipe every time because, to me, it can always be better. When you make gumbo, you have the freedom to experiment. Everyone makes their gumbo differently and it's all right.

That's what gumbo is. A common dish among us that we can all lay claim to. Every way of making it is good and every method is the correct way to make it. Let's quit fighting about this treasure of a cuisine that we all have inside us, that can feed us to our cores like no other kind of food.

Let's quit fighting about gumbo.