What is the difference between Creole and Cajun food?
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Most of these answers draw from food writers, not from folklorists and anthropologists. I’m a folklorist. I studied gumbo throughout the entire state of Louisiana. The fact is that there is no one version of gumbo: gumbo varies by region, by history, and by family.
Or let me put it another way: you can have two families living side-by-side, let’s say in Lawtell (a small town west of Opelousas). One identifies as Creole and one identifies as Cajun. Their gumbos, and in fact much of their cuisine, will look a lot alike. The Creole family is not going to somehow put more tomatoes in their food just because they are Creole. (And the Creole’s of Belle Isle in north Louisiana would take exception to the notion of tomatoes being in anything.)
In fact, Creoles are an incredibly complex collection of peoples, with those from north Louisiana, the prairies, and the New Orleans area perhaps sharing only the term Creole. Cajuns are perhaps a bit less diverse in terms of their migration history, but they are no less diverse an ethnic group. Cajuns living along the Bayous Teche, Lafourche, and Terrebonne were heavily affected by the Italians who settled along those waterways, leading them to include garlic and other “seasoning vegetables” in their dishes. Out on the prairies, I once had a farmer do a double-take when I asked about putting garlic in his food. It was like I had slapped him.
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