Prudhomme died after a brief illness, said the official from K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen.
At his own restaurant, K-Paul’s, which opened in 1979, Prudhomme and his wife Kay introduced the blackened redfish craze, which made the fish so popular that commercial fishing of the species became restricted in order to prevent it from going extinct.
His signature dishes, from seafood jambalaya to crawfish “etouffee” - or stew - helped popularise the distinctive cuisine of Louisiana across America and beyond.
The distinctly American chef became a sensation at a time when the country’s top restaurants served virtually nothing but European food.
The rotund, bearded Prudhomme became a household name in the 1980s through countless television appearances - including his own cooking shows - in which he encouraged viewers to spice up their lives and expand their palates.
And as internationally renowned chef people from all over would line up to get inside Prudhomme’s restaurant. - Emeril Lagasse, who followed Prudhomme as chef at Commander’s Palace.
He returned to New Orleans in the early 1970s and found a job as chef in a hotel restaurant. “There’s been no better ambassador for New Orleans and Louisiana than Paul Prudhomme and he will be greatly missed”, the family said. He was an accomplished raconteur who loved to talk about New Orleans and its food. Israeli media said security personnel called to her in Arabic and Hebrew multiple times to put the weapon down and that she had waved it while yelling, “Death to police”. He has been honored with awards from the food industry over the years including Restaurateur of the Year, Culinary DiPrudhomme wrote 9 cookbooks over the years and hosted five national cooking shows on PBS, which were produced locally by WYES-TV and remain viewer favorites here and across the country. But it was soon the most popular restaurant in New Orleans. He expanded K-Paul’s and turned it into an upscale operation.
Prudhomme’s success brought regrets, as well. “I came to realize that the joy of cooking Cajun and Creole food was not just that I appreciated its goodness so much, but that there was this great pleasure I got from watching other people eat it and seeing the joy in their eyes”. From there, his career and fame would skyrocket. During a 2013 cooking demonstration in New Orleans - done from his motorized scooter - he told the crowd that at one time he was 580 pounds but now weighed in at 200 pounds. He used to taste his cooking by using a large cooking spoon but changed that into a small fork and small bites. I like to watch when they don’t know I am looking at them… their whole expression changes. He poked a fork into a single piece of carrot and held it up.
