Pot & Palette
In a new cookbook featuring favorite Louisiana recipes and student artwork, George Rodrigue's legacy lives on
It’s hard to imagine that the artist George Rodrigue—famous for his Louisiana-inspired paintings, especially the Blue Dog series—never won an art competition during his childhood growing up in New Iberia. According to his son Jacques, George had felt such contests were “rigged” back then in the ‘50s, with awards usually going to relatives of the judges. So in 2010, his reputation as an artist established and his Foundation for the Arts in place, Rodrigue created a student art competition of his own. The themes inspiring the submissions for each year’s contest were to be in the spirit of Rodrigue’s own creative inspiration—which he drew from the deep well of his home state’s scenery, folklore, and culture. The contest evolved in 2020 to partner with the Trombone Shorty Foundation to include a Songwriting Contest component, as well.
“Dad always said if he wasn't from Louisiana, he probably never would have started painting in the first place,” said Jacques, who now serves as the Executive Director of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA). The Acadian culture Rodrigue grew up immersed in was always integral to his paintings and inspiration as an artist—with the distinct flavors and dishes of Cajun cuisine, and the experience of gathering around a table to share it, often the centerpiece.
“For Dad, when you think about Louisiana, and you think about what he was painting and creating, and the culture he was trying to capture, you can't speak about what Cajun is unless you talk about the food, and our restaurants and our different dishes,” Jacques explained. “It's a cuisine that comes from the story of these exiles, who were traditionally French-speaking, but took a lot of their methods and applied them to the land of Louisiana. And so making things like gumbo, and boiling crawfish, is all part of what it meant to be Cajun.”
“Dad always said if he wasn't from Louisiana, he probably never would have started painting in the first place," —Jaques Rodrigue
These sentiments are the heart behind The Pot & The Palette Cookbook II, released earlier this year as a ten-year follow up to the original 2013 edition. After inviting student applicants to the 2022 competition to submit work under the same theme that inspired the original cookbook, “Louisiana’s culinary heritage,” the GRFA then sought out a culturally-inspired collection of recipes by local chefs to accompany them.
Part of the recurring theme’s significance, besides the obvious importance of cuisine to Louisiana culture, stems from George Rodrigue’s lifelong friendship with Chef Paul Prudhomme, who grew up in Opelousas around the same time Rodrigue did in New Iberia. “The two were just basically from different bayous,” laughed Jacques. The first page of The Pot & The Palette Cookbook II dedicates the book to Prudhomme’s memory, including a biography of the chef (who passed away in 2015, two years after Rodrigue), alongside a photograph of the friends together, smiling wide.
Not only did these two early ambassadors of Cajun culture frequently paint and cook respectively at festivals together; Jacques recalled countless memories of birthdays, graduations, and other celebrations his family spent at Prudhomme’s laid-back French Quarter restaurant K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, and fondly remembered their time as Prudhomme’s across-the-street neighbors in the Marigny neighborhood. “I mean, Paul and dad went way back.” Rodrigue also painted three iconic portraits of Prudhomme, each with his signature draping live oaks to the chef’s back.
“Dad always credited Paul with making the word ‘Cajun’ a word in popular culture, because before Paul, no one knew what ‘Cajun’ was,” Jacques explained, noting that at that time, “Cajun” was most often used as a derogatory word. “But Paul and dad really embraced it as a positive thing that reflected the region's history.” When Prudhomme’s first national cooking show, Fork in the Road, aired on PBS in 1995, many Americans outside of Louisiana for the first time learned what Cajun meant—as a reflection of the region’s cuisine, music, and people. “Without Paul, Dad felt that his paintings wouldn't have had the same impact.”
Dickie Brennan, whose restaurants include Palace Café, Bourbon House, Tableau, and now Pascal’s Manale—contributed dishes like a crabmeat cheesecake and a Bourbon BBQ Shrimp Poboy to the cookbook’s collection of recipes. “We were honored to participate in the foundation’s cookbook,” said Brennan. “It is especially meaningful to me because of the dedication to Chef Paul Prudhomme, who was a close friend for many years.”
With help from the Louisiana Restaurant Association, the cookbook includes recipes from prominent restaurants and chefs throughout Louisiana. Blue Crab Beignets from Chef John Folse’s Restaurant R’evolution in New Orleans, Bananas Foster Bread Pudding from Chef Cory Bahr’s Parish Restaurant in Monroe, and Creole Tomato Soup by Chef Peter Sclafini at Phil’s Oyster Bar in Baton Rouge are just a few examples among the nearly two-hundred pages of delicacies. Thankfully they’re thoroughly indexed, and divided into categories that can easily be worked into a meal; complete with appetizers, soups/salads, entrées, desserts, and even cocktails.
“We were honored to participate in the foundation’s cookbook...It is especially meaningful to me because of the dedication to Chef Paul Prudhomme, who was a close friend for many years.” —Dickie Brennan
“I love this cookbook,” said Chef Bahr, who has appeared on major cooking shows like Food Network Star and Chopped. “The recipes are delicious, and the artwork is beautiful.”
“I mean, Dad famously said, he ‘didn't know how to cook, but loved to eat,’” Jacques said with a chuckle. “So he certainly enjoyed going to great restaurants and eating a lot of these dishes that are in the cookbook, and getting to know the chefs that are in this cookbook, as well.”
Proceeds from sales of The Pot & The Palette Cookbook II will go to support the many projects of the George Rodrigue Foundation for the Arts. These include providing scholarships to the student winners whose work is published in the cookbook, as well as funding George’s Art Closet, which provides Louisiana public schools with art supplies for students. GRFA also advocates for arts-integration in education through its support of the nonprofit (originally founded as an initiative of the GRFA) Louisiana A+ Schools, which offers professional development opportunities so teachers can learn to better integrate creative learning experiences like music in math class, or tableau in history class. “The research shows that when you do that, it's a more joyful student, and student environment,” Jacques said. “But also it's more enjoyable for teachers. Test scores go up. Creativity, imagination, goes up.”
And of course, there are the winners of the student art and songwriting contests, whose lives and educations directly benefit from their scholarship awards. “The talent really just jumps off the page at you. And immediately, you understand, ‘Oh, this looks like professional artists did all this.’ You wouldn't think they were just high school students,” Jacques said. “And that's a testament to the art programs in so many great schools across the state, and the talent that is here.”
Callan Thornton from Monroe, the first prize winner for 2022, said the scholarship has been an enormous aid in paying for her first year studying studio art at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. While she had fun working on her submission, titled “Fresher Than Expected,” Thornton never expected that it would win first place.
“I think it's important, just for us to remember our culture. We are a very diverse place, and so many different people are coming together here,” —Callan Thornton
“I almost dropped my phone,” she said. “I just did it to have fun with the experience. And so actually winning was, I don't know, an unexpected surprise. As soon as I got off the phone, I ran to my parents. I was like, ‘You guys are not gonna believe it.’ And then I called my talented art teacher, and he was super proud of me too.”
Thornton initially heard about the competition from her aunt, and was grateful for an opportunity to create a piece outside of the realm of what she’d normally draw in her high school talented art class, which mostly focused on still lifes and realism. She was inspired by her grandparents’ chicken farm, where she spent time growing up. “I felt like that was kind of in my roots, to do sort of chicken-inspired piece,” Thornton said. “And I also wanted to show the community that I feel like Southerners really have, because we move at a slower pace than other locations—you know, up north everyone's like, going all the time. Whereas I feel like we tend to sit back and enjoy each other's presence moreso.”
Even for someone so young, the cultural preservation aspect of the GRFA’s mission is not lost on Thornton. “I think it's important, just for us to remember our culture. We are a very diverse place, and so many different people are coming together here,” Thornton said. "And I feel like we forget about the arts a lot of the time, and how big of an impact they have in Louisiana.”
Thornton’s goal is to get her masters degree and eventually teach art at the university level. “I want to become an art professor, so I can share my love of art, and empower other people to be able to pursue art as a profession.”
According to Jacques, when he was alive, his father would, “just be blown away, anytime we would have the art contest.” George Rodrigue was able to attend the first few award ceremonies before he passed away in 2013. “He always loved meeting the students and encouraging them with their work. And we're just so proud of all of it. And so we're honored to carry that on, and to carry on these programs and missions that he started.”
A comprehensive retrospective of George Rodrigue’s work will be on display at the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette, opening in January 2024. The first full-length documentary about George Rodrigue’s life and work is set to premiere nationally on PBS American Masters in time for what would have been the artist’s eightieth birthday in March 2024. Find The Pot & The Palette Cookbook II at georgerodriguefoundation.org.