NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Chef Paul Prudhomme, credited with helping popularize Cajun and Creole cuisine, died Thursday, according to K-Paul’s, the New Orleans restaurant he owned.
Prudhomme, who was 75, died in New Orleans after a brief illness, the restaurant said.
“Chef Paul Prudhomme changed forever the way Louisiana food is regarded in the world,” food historian and local radio host Poppy Tooker said, according to New Orleans newspaper Gambit. “He had such an incredible influence on our cuisine that you could find a touch of Paul on restaurant plates across the city and the country today.”
Prudhomme was one of the nation’s first celebrity chefs, and his restaurants attracted huge crowds and widespread acclaim. He hosted several cooking shows and authored nine cookbooks, some of them bestsellers, according to his biography.
Commander’s Palace, the well-regarded New Orleans restaurant where Prudhomme was executive chef before opening K-Paul’s in 1979, tweeted that its staff was saddened by the news.
“He was well loved,” the restaurant said.
Prudhomme has a Pennsylvania connection, his nephew and niece, David Prudhomme and wife, Sharon own and operate Prudhomme’s lost Cajun Kitchen in Columbia, Lancaster County.
