Over the years, Cajun cooking has taken on a variety of names that describes its style of cooking, such as one-pot cooking, food of the bayou and Louisiana country cooking.
The late chef and television personality, Justin Wilson, and chef Paul Prudhomme, were the first regional chefs to bring their Cajun style of cooking to mainstream America. Chef Justin Wilson shocked and delighted TV viewers by showing them how to cook alligator gumbo and turtle soup. Chef Paul, whose family has lived in the Southern Louisiana bayou country since the mid-1700s, taught Americans how to add spices to food for heat and flavor, and how to cook poultry and fish by blackening it. He also launched, successfully, a line of spice blends used to enhance the flavors of Cajun recipes.