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Marcelle Bienvenu

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Featured Participant Lineup 2025 Marcelle Bienvenu

Marcelle Bienvenu is a renowned cookbook author and food writer specializing in Cajun and Creole cuisine since the 1960s. Her work has graced publications like The Times-Picayune, Garden & Gun, and The New York Times. She authored Cajun Cooking for Beginners and co-edited the James Beard-nominated Cooking Up a Storm. Bienvenu collaborated with Emeril Lagasse on several cookbooks, including Louisiana Real & Rustic. She previously owned Chez Marcelle and worked at Commander's Palace and K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. A former instructor at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, she resides on Bayou Teche.

Schedule

11:15 am to Noon
Cooking Demonstration Tent
Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?
Marcelle Bienvenu with moderator Joshua Hebert

12:15 pm to 1:00 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?

Marcelle Bienvenu's highly anticipated new release of her timeless classic, Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux? is a treasure trove of over two hundred recipes, now complete with a foreword by Emeril Lagasse and sumptuous color photography capturing the essence of every season.

Praised by The New York Times in 2009 as "having what might be the best-named cookbook in America" this book promises to be a coveted collectible, with curated family recipes accumulated over generations alongside captivating life stories on Bayou Têche. 

Featured in the Aug/Sept issue of Garden & Gun by Jonathan Miles, who raves that "What sets South Louisiana cuisine apart lies at the nucleus of [one] of this year’s finest cookbooks...Bienvenu spices her [book] with anecdotes, digressions, and heaps of mamaw energy."

Tradition and flavor beckons readers into Bienvenu's world. From Backbone Stew (Reintier de Cochon) to Aunt Jenny's Daube Glacé and Poor Al's Fried Turkey, each dish inspires readers to embark on a journey through the tapestry of Cajun and Creole Cuisine.

Relish the stories of the bayou and the warmth of Southern hospitality with Bienvenu's easy, foolproof recipes...the perfect companion for seasoned chefs, aspiring home cooks, and those that cherish the foodways of South Louisiana.