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Cajun culinary wiz Isaac Toups has a new cookbook out as of today (Tuesday, October 23) — named Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking, it’s a meaty tour of regional cooking from a New Orleans favorite.
Toups, who is known for his restaurants Toups Meatery and Toups South as well as from Top Chef’s 13th season, paired up with writer Jennifer V. Cole to put the book together, which has been in the works for nearly two years.
The sharp-tongued chef’s first book blends classics and new creations. Fittingly for any book with a section titled “Cajun 101”, staples like gumbo (with chicken and sausage), dirty rice (a fanciful sirloin version), boudin, and crabcakes all make appearances. Then there’s Toups Meatery’s Sazerac terrine with pork butt and belly, and “Louisiana Ditch Chicken” (actually frogs’ legs), too.
Ahead of its release, Chasing the Gator earned props from the New York Times, where it made the best-of list for this fall, and it boasts praise from names like Danny Meyer and Gail Simmons.
Toups is holding book signings in the coming weeks, too — catch him at the Newman Book Fair on October 31 at 9:30 a.m., and Crescent City Farmers Market at 9:30 a.m. on November 3.
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