DECONSTRUCT GUMBO

With influences ranging from Native American to African and ingredients that might include seafood and sausages, or occasionally eggs and greens, Louisiana’s beloved state dish is notoriously hard to pin down

- SARA ROAHEN

Gumbo is a dish that resists definition. For every statement of truth about it, there exists an opposing statement of truth. It’s sometimes served as a soup course, while at other times it’s the centrepiece of a meal. It’s casual, gather-around-the-pot party food, yet it’s also formal, worthy of holiday tables and fine china. It’s always served with rice, except when it comes with potato salad or cornbread.

The contradictions don’t end there. The official dish of Louisiana, gumbo is served in practically every restaurant in the state with a locally themed menu. But for many Louisianians, this soup (or is it a stew? Many would argue it’s somewhere in between) is strictly to be made and eaten at home. It can be seafood-heavy or meaty, fired up with cayenne pepper or subtly spiced, thin and delicate or viscous and gravy-like.

These varying ideas about the perfect gumbo stir up light-hearted debate in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast, where the dish has for centuries been as much a part of life as swamps and mosquitoes. But while gumbo refuses to be tied to a single recipe, it’s inarguably a dish of community: it has cross-cultural significance, a relevance on every Louisiana table.

Perhaps predictably, gumbo’s provenance is as murky as its broth. US author Mary Randolph’s 1824 book, The Virginia Housewife: Or Methodical Cook, is the first cookbook to include a recipe for a dish called ‘gumbo’ — essentially stewed okra with butter. It wasn’t until the turn of the 20th century, however, that written recipes began to reflect what the dish looks and tastes like today.