What is the difference between Creole and Cajun food?
In: 5243
Cajuns where a subset of Creole, but modern times, Cajun are the White southerns, Creole are the blacks, mixed in New Orleans/north.
They use the same spices, but Creole food usually is tomato based or has tomatoes and Cajun does not. There is more too it, but that is the easy line.
From a cajun currently living in New Orleans: cajun food is creole food with less Spanish influence, and more an emphasis on the African American slaves’ diets and the settlement of poor French acadiens in southern Louisiana.
Lots of rich, saucy (often tomato based) dishes available at any restaurant in the city.
Lots of gumbo and boudin and rice & gravy at your grandma’s house in Vermilion Parish.
Cajun is Acadian, ie, displaced French from Nova Scotia, Canada.
Creole is derived from Caribbean areas.
“Creole” means, roughly, “born in the colony”. So languages, people, and customs that developed in new world colonies are in technical terms, “creoles”. Which has nothing to do with Louisiana Creole cuisine.
When Louisiana was settled by French and Spanish citizens, there was some kerfluffle over the rights of their descendants. They were termed “Creoles” as a legal term, giving them the legal rights of their ancestral nations. In Louisiana, MOSTLY, Creole refers to the people and culture of the early settlers. They’re mostly the upper class plantation society.
The Cajuns were Acadian refugees from Canada, expelled by the British. They traveled the whole east coast of America before the Creoles welcomed them. They settled in the areas not already controlled by plantations, so marshes and swamps.
TL;DR: Creole food is haute cuisine, plantation and restaurant cooking. Cajun food is the cuisine of a people doing their (amazing) best with what they could grow or catch. Similar to the haute cuisine vs peasant food of the French.
[removed]
Acadian here who is currently still living in present day Acadie (New-Brunswick and Nova Scotia). Cajun food would be from our descendants that got expelled from our home land in 1755 to the louisanna area. Our story is both sad and fascinating, although not very well known around the world.
For anyone interested in history google the 1755 Acadian deportation also known as “le grand derangement”. Thousands of us died while all of this happened.
We also have delicious modern day Acadian food such as poutine rape, Pete de soeur and fricot soup.
We’re known for being very proud of our culture and heritage since the English tried to exterminate us completely from Canada but failed to do so.
You can dig into a lot of history and semantics with the words themselves in other comments, but practically speaking, here are the two key elements that contrast them today:
1. The food itself. Creole food tends have more tomato than Cajun food in similar dishes, but that has very limited use as a comparison. Creole tends to involve more gulf seafood while Cajun leans toward freshwater seafood, except shrimp that’s very common to both. But similar to the tomato part, it has limited use for comparison purposes because plenty of their menu items don’t involve any seafood at all. Creole has room for fancy, fine dining versions in addition to poor peasant versions while Cajun food is almost exclusively peasant food by design.
2. Where it’s cooked and eaten. Creole is most often found in urban areas, especially New Orleans, and is more often associated with the black community from one angle and fancy French-style dining from another angle. But a lot of that is the influence of tourism in New Orleans, of course. Real cajun food is more often in rural areas and identifies closer to country white-identifying people around the Lafayette area. It’s common to cook and eat Cajun food outside at big outdoor/field/backyard parties while Creole is usually cooked in a kitchen and eaten at a table.
Note that my descriptions above use words like “tends to” or “usually” very deliberately because none of these aspects are anywhere close to absolute rules. There are a lot of similarities in the foods and you’ll find great examples of both often on the same menu in south Louisiana whether it’s in a restaurant or a backyard party.
I’m the fourth generation of a family that took up Louisiana soil as it’s home. My great-grandparents were raised around the Lafayette area. My grandfather joined the Navy when he was old enough. He ultimately ended up working in the galley because everyone preferred his cooking. After his service he took up permanent residence in New Orleans. To this day, he refers to himself and his family as “coonasses”. I’m still not entirely certain what it means, but from what I can gather it was a derogatory term given to people of Creole origin. Yes, tomatoes and peppers are certainly a hallmark of Creole cuisine, but beyond that I’ve never been able to quantify a difference between Creole and “Cajun” food. The only real difference I could ever see was that Creole dishes had a lot more stews, and slow-cooked recipes. Other than that, it was just a bunch of mixed proteins and spices. People will tell you that the traditional jambalaya dish is ham and rice. I’ve never had a genuine New Orleans native make jambalaya with ham in it. Just like every other cultural tradition in America, it’s almost certainly a distant parody of what it initially was. So in summation, as what others have already said, the main difference is the use of tomatoes.
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.
Back in the day they both referred to people who settled in the Louisiana region. Cajun comes from the French word “Acadians” and refers to Canadians who came down and settled in Louisiana.
Originally, there was no difference. Creole or Cajun people could be any race and it referred to where they lived. Now the meanings have been washed away and replaced. The “meanings” that they have taken on today, and when it comes to food, essentially Cajun means white and Creole means black. But again, really no difference.
Latest Answers