re: Clash of the Cooks jambalaya cookoff on campus

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o me, if I have 23 teams all cooking the same chicken and sausage, except for the real crappy ones, there probably isn't much difference. However, a traditional chicken and sausage won judges vote last year and same team won crowd favorite this year

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Agree here. For those who want a buttoned up jamabalaya contest, stick w the big festivals. 20 pots of similiar jam is not interesting to many of my friends/family. We are much more likely to attend an event w a wide variety w/o stringent rules.

To the parboiled rice comment, I get it... but a lot of people are as simple as “if it tastes good, lets eat it.” Not, they didn’t use the right rice to pop or it has bad color or whatever else an “official” judge would say. Keep that at Lamar Dixon, imo

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got serious jambo cooks out there losing to beef bacon and pork jambalayas then word will get around and it won't grow any.

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This is true as well... i know some serious jambalaya cooks that arent going to put the effort in if the judging aspect is totally up in the air. We all do it for fun, but it’s also a competition and there should be some way to seperate the real jambalaya cooks and the parboiled rice crews

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traditional chicken and sausage won people's choice

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What the shite is traditional chicken and sausage jambalaya? I always thought traditional was pork and sausage?

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I always thought traditional was pork and sausage

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Traditional is actually just chicken. Jambalaya was a poor people dish way back in the day. Kill the chicken in your back yard and make jambalaya with it. Which is one reason why the jambalaya festival sticks to just chicken.

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F that. There are a few people in a small village who think they know what "real" or "traditional" jambalaya is supposed to be.

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I don't know Rat, we don't believe we have a monopoly, but there is a dish called jambalaya and then there are dishes that have rice and a protein and a bunch of other stuff. None of us "small town people" knock the food. Those are good dishes and some good cooks that cook them, they should just be called something else . Side note, I'm not being an stubborn a-hole I'm just engaging in a legit discussion in case that doesn't come across in my posts.

Jambalaya, crawfish-piya, file, gumbo!

Rat, the guy was asking for suggestions to grow his event...I have cooked in a ton of these so I'm giving perspective/advice from a competition jambalaya cooker. The entry fee is 120, then you're looking at another 200-250 for ingredients. I don't want to invest time and money into a competition where bacon and beef jambalaya comes out on top from judges results. That tells you the parameters are all over the place. People's choice is there for people who truly come out to do it for fun and invest in the charity and want to cook something outside the box.

Also, as far as JFA jambalaya being nasty...I'll agree when it comes to the big Gonzales festival because what the judges are looking for is so refined that cooks don't really focus on mass appeal. But, most other JFA backed events have some of the best jambalaya you'll ever taste.

Lastly, I'm not putting down the event...just giving suggestions to draw a larger competition field. If the folks organizing it truly want to steer more towards unique jambalaya dishes then that's fine as well.

if they want to keep the "creative" side just have 2 categories. Traditional and Non-traditional. You get the best of both worlds. Bring in the cooks that cook in the JFA events and bring in the groups that want to cook a non-traditional jambalaya.

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LSUsmartass

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whats your booth number this weekend? Need to finish out my fantasy lineup

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there is a dish called jambalaya and then there are dishes that have rice and a protein and a bunch of other stuff.

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This is what I object to. You dismiss any other jambalaya that doesn't conform to what your local population came up making.

People on the bayou have been cooking jambalaya just as long as the folks around Gonzales, but just chicken would be unthinkable to them. Their's almost always has some seafood.

Jambalaya's been around just as long in New Orleans, too, but tomatoes are traditional in jambalaya there.

I assume people in Ville Platte have been making Jambalaya for a long time, too, and I'll bet their's always has sausage or some other smoked meat.

The Gonzales way isn't the only way to make jambalaya and you can't own the name. Jambalaya is a Louisiana dish and different areas of the state have their variations.

Now I will object to some yankees making up shite like a stew served over rice or having kale and okra in it. Hell even some Louisianians put mushrooms in it.