Forbes Traveler is serving up a main course of Cajun cooking to its well-heeled readers this month by naming Lafayette chef Pat Mould’s Cajun Country tours as one of the world’s best culinary trips . Along with cooking vacations in Nova Scotia; Japan and Oaxaca, Mexico; Louisiana’s Cajun country is on the hot plate. Forbes says of the bayou cooking adventure:
“One needn’t head overseas to learn something new about food. In the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country, Epiculinary’s four-day Cajun Country tour introduces both amateur and professional chefs to robust local dishes like jambalaya, boudin and gumbo. After a long day of cooking like a local in the hot kitchen, it’s time to dance the night away like a local to red-hot Zydeco music.”
Mould has been a long time ambassador for the state’s unique cuisine. On Tuesday, he cooked lunch for a group of international food writers who were visiting St. Martinville. “There was a food writer from Bon Appetit ,” he says. “After a lunch of duck and andouille gumbo, she came up to me and told me ‘I finally get this cuisine.’ Now this is someone who is in the know about food,” Mould says. “But it took for her to come here and taste it for herself to get it.”
When I contacted Mould this morning, he hadn’t even heard that his cooking trip had been cited as one of the world’s best. “I’ve been in the kitchen,” he says. “But for Forbes, which is synonymous with fine living, to pick my little old Cajun country excursion just goes to show how much we have to offer here.”