NEWS

A wonderful review of REAL CAJUN:  Rustic Home Cooking From Donald Link's Louisiana.  Chef Link, of Herbsaint and Cochon restaurants, is a great friend of Abita Beer and Abita gets a nice mention in the review.  Here's an excerpt or you can read the whole review here...

Cajun food has touristy, shake-on connotations that cease to tempt once you’ve left the French Quarter. In recent years, the New Orleans chef Donald Link has restored its appeal by resuscitating Cajun classics at his restaurants Herbsaint, Cochon and the new Cochon Butcher. Herbsaint was one of the first fine-dining restaurants to reopen after Katrina, and the invitingly packaged REAL CAJUN: Rustic Home Cooking From Donald Link’s Louisiana (Clarkson Potter, $35), written with Paula Disbrowe, shows why his food means so much to the community.

Link shares the fare he ate growing up on the bayou, as well as what he cooks for family, friends and funerals. Some recipes are aspirationally insane — fried chicken and andouille gumbo, or “game day” choucroute with sausage, tasso and duck confit — while others I simply aspire to make, like a fried oyster and bacon sandwich (bacon recipe included), and Link’s outstanding boudin, which he also uses as a heart-stopping beignet filling. The tone is easygoing, the explanations clear. Before I knew it, I was frying up spicy hush puppies and serving chicken and sausage jambalaya while drinking Abita beer.