Passage: Chef Paul Prudhomme
"Now that's what I call a pot of jambalaya!"
It happened this past week ... the loss of Cajun food's greatest champion: "It's hard to have a good time in Louisiana without food," said celebrity chef and restaurateur Paul Prudhomme, who died Thursday of an undisclosed illness.
The youngest of 13 children, Prudhomme helped his mother in the kitchen from an early age, and after years of apprenticeship in other people's restaurants, he opened his own, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, in 1979.
The restaurant, with its innovative blend of spicy down-home recipes, became a culinary landmark.
Through TV shows, cookbooks and personal appearances, Prudhomme devoted his life to making people happy ... one mouthwatering dish at a time.
"That's what Louisiana food does, and that's what Cajun food does," he once said. "It creates excitement, and it creates emotion in you, and you know you had great time."
Cajun Chef Paul Prudhomme was 75.
- Chef Paul Prudhomme shows Big Easy Spirit ("The Early Show," 09/29/05)
- Paul Prudhomme's Mardi Gras Menu ("The Early Show," 02/28/06)
- Cooking With Chef Prudhomme (CBS News, 04/20/06)