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When did you first dip a spoon into a rich, soul-satisfying, flavor-bomb bowl of gumbo? If you grew up in a Black community, it probably was at your grandma’s or mama’s table. That taste you loved might have been a special gumbo served during Christmas or New Year’s holidays or maybe at a Super Bowl party.
No matter when or where, it is an unforgettable memory for gumbo lovers. “It was one of those things that always brought the family together. It was a great meal that people enjoyed around the table,” says Lambert Givens, executive chef at Hunter’s Kitchen & Bar in South Boston.
Although Givens grew up in Connecticut, he spent many Sundays making gumbo with his grandmother, Roberta Williams, who lived in Alabama and Utah before moving to the North.
“Making that Sunday gumbo together with her was always a fun experience and one of my favorite pastimes,” the chef reflects. “That was one of the things that really connected us back to the Southern roots. It was one of those recipes where you could taste the story and how things evolved over time in that dish.”
A Gumbo Black Heritage Story
The history of gumbo evolved over time into a story that highlights the Black heritage of the dish that is world famous. Food historians today trace some of the ingredients to Africa, as stated in an article on Cooknight:
“The answer lies in the stew’s complex composition. Gumbo’s base, a thick, flavorful roux made from flour and oil, bears striking similarities to the “fonio” sauce found in West African cuisine. Additionally, many of gumbo’s signature ingredients, such as okra, tomatoes, and chili peppers, are native to Africa.”
Gumbo’s evolution as Louisiana’s signature dish also has roots in a melting pot of French, Spanish and Native American culinary influences, including the rice from the French, cayenne from the Spanish and the Choctaw Indians’ filé powder made from sassafras leaves.
Its significance dates back centuries to a multicultural stew of people passing down gumbo traditions in their families and neighborhoods. In African American communities in New Orleans and elsewhere, a pot of gumbo became an occasion for celebration.
“What I didn’t know is that it is eaten at all holidays; so at Christmas and Thanksgiving, there’s also a gumbo, and everyone’s is different. I think that’s beautiful,” says Martha Wiggins, chief culinary officer at Café Reconcile in New Orleans.
“You think of it as an everyday dish, which it is. But a very special gumbo is usually made with the best cuts for Christmas or Thanksgiving.”
Chef Wiggins moved to New Orleans from Massachusetts in 2010. She insists that she is not a local expert on gumbo but has learned about its cultural and culinary traditions from Black chefs, cooks, recipes and café customers.
“It was not something I grew up eating outside of a restaurant. I needed to be taught by several different people for years to better understand all of it, and it’s still going on,” the chef states.
The Washington, D.C. native received two James Beard nominations for Best Chef and Rising Star Chef of the Year during her seven-and-a-half-year stint at Sylvain’s in New Orleans. Yet, it was not until she joined the Black-owned Café Reconcile that Wiggins developed a gumbo recipe she feels is good enough to have on the menu, even if it doesn’t please everyone.
“These past four years have been the most influential and transforming in my understanding of the dish. One of the biggest tasks in working in this restaurant and the challenges of my career was cooking for a Black audience from New Orleans. I’m making gumbo, and everybody’s grandma makes gumbo different. So, I had to know I was never going to win this one,” Wiggins acknowledges.
RECIPE: Toya Boudy’s Gumbo
Gumbo, Three Different Ways
Café Reconcile serves chicken, sausage and okra gumbo. It is one of dozens of combinations of meat and vegetables for the dish. Almost all gumbos in the Black New Orleans tradition are made with a roux, a mixture of flour and oil stirred and simmered to the desired color, from light brown to dark chocolate. The holy trinity of sautéed onions, bell pepper (green or red) and celery is mandatory.
The cook usually chooses the protein, but chicken, sausage, seafood and ham are common ingredients. “There’s so many different kinds and for different occasions. That’s the biggest takeaway for me. A lot of this is what you are accustomed to, and what you grew up eating is what will taste best to you, I think,” says Chef Wiggins.
Three types of gumbo represent what people cook in New Orleans and Louisiana’s home and restaurant kitchens. One is a Creole gumbo made with a light-colored roux, sausage, okra and tomatoes. The second is a spicier Cajun gumbo that usually has a thicker, dark-colored roux and no tomatoes. Both are made with a flavorful stock and often meats and seafood.
Executive chef emeritus Leah Chase made the third type of gumbo famous. Every Thursday before Easter, the late “Queen of Creole Cuisine” cooked gallons of Gumbo Z’Herbes, a vegetarian dish made with nine types of greens. She started the custom in 1973 at Dooky Chase’s, the world-renowned New Orleans restaurant she owned with her husband.
The gumbo Chef Wiggins makes at Café Reconcile is a middle-ground stew crafted from her research and studies of Black recipes. It provides the foundation for teaching the next generation of young New Orleans cooks the art of preparing their heritage dish.
“Working with young people from New Orleans and making their first gumbo together is a privilege. It’s really an honor to see how proud they are because they say this is our food,” she remarks.
The café operates as a nonprofit workforce training program for young New Orleanians ages 16 to 24. The students and the customers come to the restaurant with their memories of gumbo and expectations of what it should be.
“It’s very important to me that our food is familiar to our young people and the community here in Central City, New Orleans. And also, it’s accessible to them from a price standpoint,” says Wiggins.
A Winning Gumbo Made in Boston
Nearly 1,400 miles from New Orleans, Chef Givens pays homage to his grandmother with the gumbo he put on the menu at Hunter’s. He tweaked her recipe with what he learned during his culinary career. The result is a seafood gumbo so delicious that it gave the Boston chef the victory when he competed on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” in 2021.
“Between the social media and news outlets, people seem very excited about the gumbo and still talk about it. It’s not something you get to try or have every day, so it is a special thing we have here,” says Givens.
Tourists from as far away as California, Colorado, and Illinois have come to Hunter’s to order the winning dish, which was better than the celebrity chef’s gumbo. “It still means a lot to me. I think putting that dish on a national stage and then being able to share that story with everyone and share that dish with everyone is a huge accomplishment in my life,” Hunter’s executive chef declares.
RECIPE: Chef Mimi J’s Gumbo
Gumbo Tales from Colorado to California
As someone who grew up in Colorado, I can confirm that Black folks we knew in Denver had their own tales to share about gumbo traditions passed down in their families. My mom would cook a big pot of seafood gumbo around the Christmas or New Year’s holidays.
She was the first person who taught my brother how to make the legendary dish. But it was not until he picked up “Creole Feast: 15 Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets,” a cookbook first published in 1978, that he refined his gumbo-making skills.
“I started making gumbo based on what mom was doing and what was in the cookbook. I decided that I was going to start making my own stock instead of buying chicken stock or something like that. That’s when I started experimenting with gumbo and making it for friends and family,” says my brother Imara Yokely.
“The Creole Feast cookbook” with recipes from top Black New Orleans chefs, including Dooky Chase, traveled with Yokely from Denver to Chicago and finally, to San Francisco and Oakland. He experimented with recipes wherever he lived and eventually became a gumbo guru.
“I started to refine it based on what ingredients were available depending on where I was. As a result of people enjoying it, they started saying, ‘When are you going to make some gumbo? Let us know, and we’ll bring crab or whatever,’” Yokely recalls.
The standout gumbo the Oakland resident prefers to serve to family and friends starts with a whole roasted duck. Yokely shares why it is his favorite. “I can make different kinds of gumbo, but my favorite is duck, oysters, sausage and crab. You can make a roux with the duck fat. Once you skin the duck, you can fry up the skin and crumble it over the gumbo as a finishing touch. It gives it a little crispy factor.”
The home cook mentions that his gumbo fans will probably have to wait until early 2025 for the next pot of gumbo. The state of California delayed the start of commercial Dungeness crab season for the rest of the year. The action helps protect migrating whales from getting entangled in crab fishing gear.
Yokely is okay with waiting for one of his gumbo’s specialty ingredients because he knows it will be worth it. “Papa Gumbo, that’s what my friends named me, or maybe that’s the name I gave myself,” he laughs. “If I say I’m going to make some gumbo, they all show up.”
Tips for Making a Great Pot of Gumbo
Any cooks or chefs wanting to make a great gumbo need to honor the culinary legacy of the New Orleans dish. No matter what kind they choose to serve, it starts with a superb stock, preferably homemade.
Yokely takes the time to cook two stocks from scratch. “I make the first stock with the whole duck carcass and maybe some chicken thighs. Then, I’ll take the shells from whatever seafood I’m using and make a second stock using the shells. I blend the stocks at the end,” he explains.
My brother uses the fat from the roasted duck to prepare the next ingredient essential to most exceptional gumbos: the roux. “I consistently make a really dark roux. Stirring the flour with the fat is a very slow process so that it does not burn,” says Yokely.
Every gumbo master stresses the value of the proper roux. “I think the most important part is to make sure you take your time on that roux, make it very flavorful and do it slowly,” advises Chef Givens.
“You don’t want to burn the roux, but you kind of want to get it cooking to make sure you’re seeing all the oil incorporated into the flour. And you want to get that nice color to it. That’s super important for gumbo.”
The trinity of diced bell pepper, onion and celery is also mandatory. Once the roux reaches the desired color, the trinity is usually stirred into it. However, some New Orleanians taught Chef Wiggins that not everyone does roux the same way.
“Most people are taught to cook a roux with equal parts of fat and flour. You cook that until it is nice and dark or whatever color you want. Then you add your trinity and your stock,” she explains.
“Their way is toasting the dry flour separately, sautéing the trinity, and then adding that toasted flour to the sautéed trinity. So, you don’t have to use as much oil, and some people say it is not as greasy. A lot of people who make large batches do it that way.”
The quality of ingredients, from the andouille or smoked sausage to the vegetables and seafood, matter as much as time, attention and taste-testing your gumbo to achieve a symphony of flavors.
Chef Wiggins is more forgiving than some traditionalists regarding regional or modern twists. “Everyone should be allowed to try something new. Gumbo comes from so many places, and it’s so deep and rich, I am open to some twists and variations. I also think there is something to be said for keeping traditions,” Wiggins points out.
The New Orleans chef is accustomed to patrons at Café Reconcile ordering potato salad with their gumbo. Wiggins believes most variations pay homage to gumbo traditions and keep them alive. She also cautions against getting involved in the gumbo argument appearing on some social media sites and in heated debates with local New Orleanians.
“Everyone has a story about somebody or some family member putting weenies in the gumbo and how it was so shameful. They talked bad about ‘em,” Wiggins laughingly admits. “Just ask New Orleanians whether they’ve ever seen somebody put weenies in a gumbo. You’ll get a good story and a lot of fire around that topic.”
RELATED: Lambert Givens Perfects Passion for Comfort Cooking in South Boston
Going for Gumbo in New Orleans
You are not likely to find hot dogs in any gumbo served at the top spots in New Orleans. On a trip there, Yokely and his life partner Najwa tried the gumbo at several well-known places.
“There was one restaurant, maybe two, where she thought the gumbo was as good as mine. The best restaurant we went to in New Orleans was Atchafalaya. It was really good food and gumbo. The gumbo du jour was made with a dark roux,” he says. “The other was at Commander’s Palace. It was a pretty good gumbo.”
The couple wanted to dine at Dooky Chase’s but could not get a reservation. Chef Wiggins has eaten there. “Oh yeah, and I love it. They have the gumbo they serve during the Lent season, which is absolutely incredible. I have that recipe by Leah Chase up in my kitchen. I think it’s such a beautiful recipe, and it shows how intricate, elaborate and elevated this cuisine is.”
Edgar “Dook” Chase is carrying on his grandmother’s gumbo legacy at the restaurant in Tremé. Southern Living’s “2024 South Best Awards Survey” of readers names Dooky Chase’s as the best place to go for gumbo in New Orleans.
Eater New Orleans published a list of go-to spots for gumbo in October. Café Reconcile is among the Black-owned restaurants chosen that includes:
If you go to New Orleans for gumbo, make reservations well in advance at Dooky Chase’s, Café Reconcile and other restaurants that accept them. Planning a trip to Boston? Chef Givens recommends stopping in at Hunter’s for a taste of his seafood gumbo.
