Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Louisiana’s flavors and characters stay with you long after your visit is over. No sooner have you boarded your plane back to Peoria, than you have a hankering for a meal of muffaletta and Zapp’s Cajun Crawtator potato chips, followed by a slab of brown sugar pecan goodness from the Praline Connection, washed down with an Abita Amber. Nowhere else in the country is food as essential to the cultural experience as it is in the Pelican State. And since we don’t get there as often as we’d like, and Mardi Gras is right around the corner, we are extremely grateful for the internet, overnight shipping and John Folse & Company.

Chef John Folse grew up in St. James Parish, just upriver from New Orleans, where he learned to cook with the swamp, woods and river as his pantry. He opened his first restaurant, Lafitte’s Landing, in 1978, and proceeded to introduce Cajun and Creole cuisine to the world through his restaurants in Moscow, London, Taipei, Seoul and Bogota. His empire now includes a smokehouse, bakery, dairy, USDA manufacturing plant, catering operation and the spectacular White Oak Plantation event site. Not bad for a kid from the swampland! John Folse & Company has just what you need to satisfy your Louisiana food jones. We are big fans of their Creole cream cheese cheesecake; if you want to try your own recipe, you can also buy their Bittersweet Plantation Dairy Creole cream cheese by the pound. If you’re cooking gumbo this Mardi Gras, you’ll definitely want to lay in a supply of their pecan-smoked tasso and andouille for the most authentic flavor. And if you want to let someone else do the cooking, John Folse & Company sells a great variety of traditional Cajun and Creole prepared foods, from jambalaya to crawfish étouffeé.