Cajun Aces

There’s no shorthand for the magic of Louisiana cooking—for every Bananas Foster served atop a white tablecloth in New Orleans, there’s a Magnalite pot brimming with Aunt Grace’s gumbo in Abbeville. In 2014, we set out to shed a light on those Louisiana chefs wielding their whisks in towns under 25,000 with the Small Town Chefs Awards. Now two members of our inaugural class are getting national attention—which is what we’ve maintained that they’ve deserved all the way along.

Chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll, from Batchelor and Gonzales, respectively, will star in the new Food Network series Cajun Aces. The Carrolls own and operate the restaurants Hot Tails in New Roads, Louisiana, and Sac-a-Lait in New Orleans. In the show, which premieres Saturday, December 2, viewers will follow the husband-and-wife chefs as they wade through crawfish season, face down homecoming weekend, do some late-night bow hunting, and lure in a dinner crowd on a dead Sunday night. Crawfish, redfish, fig pepper jelly, and okra will surely be positioned as foreign delights to Food Network’s national audience—but even the most hard-boiled Cajun will be impressed by what Chefs Cody and Sam can make of a mirliton. The show premieres with two episodes at 7 pm and 7:30 pm on December 2—but you might want to make your Sac-a-Lait and Hot Tails reservations now. We have a feeling they’re about to get crowded. Visit foodnetwork.com for more information.