As a 6th generation Billeaud from Broussard (whose French ancestors came here to Acadiana from France) if I'm not Cajun, who is? Prior to opening my first T-Coon's restaurant in 1993, I had no restaurant experience at all, but I grew up surrounded by cooking: after all, there were 9 of us in the family. Even though I'm a Cajun, you'll notice that the word โCajunโ is not used in any of our advertising. That's because we see the word misused throughout the country. Iโve chosen the term Zydeco instead as it better represents the flavor of T-Coon's. Zydeco implies a mix of the Creole and Cajun influences that are exclusive to this area of Southern Louisiana. Travel just a few miles from Acadiana in any direction and you quickly lose the true Zydeco influence. Just as you canโt tell someone how to paint a painting, I've found that you can't tell someone how to brown a gravy or how much roux to put in a gumbo or how much tomato paste to use in a courtboullion. You need to have a mental "taste" for the dish before you can cook it. it has to be preconceived in your mind. Over the years, this has been made obvious to me as Iโve had to train more cooks. One of the reasons I developed the seasoning mix was to help my cooks keep the food consistently good.
