We Can Thank One Chef For Introducing Us To Blackened Food

We take the ubiquity of blackened fish on restaurant menus (or home dinner tables) for granted sometimes, but the technique for cooking the now-common, spice-encrusted, pan-seared filet with the nearly burnt appearance has its own origin story. Chef Paul Prudhomme, who died in 2015 at the age of 75, is widely credited as the one who came up with the cooking technique.

He originally used it on redfish, and after playing with different iterations of the method, he decided upon a cast iron pan as the proper vessel to make it happen. This was in March 1980, and the dish became an overnight sensation. Long lines started forming outside his restaurant, K-Paul, and overall demand for the dish directly caused the overfishing of redfish. This resulted in a commercial harvesting regulation overhaul to allow redfish to grow its population back. 

Fortunately, the blackening approach also works with other types of fish and seafood, along with pork, chicken (even Popeye's occasionally serves a blackened chicken sandwich), and steak.

Paul Prudhomme's blackening seasoning features dry pantry herbs and spices that most of us have at home, including paprika, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, thyme, and oregano (The New York Times has the full recipe). Basically, your fish takes a generous dredging in the spice mixture and cooks in a ripping hot cast iron skillet, which gives the fish sort of a mock char to it as the seasonings solidify to create a crust.

And no, your food isn't actually burnt. The crust is the coveted part that makes blackening so unique. Prudhomme is also credited with starting the farm-to-table movement where locally sourced ingredients are prioritized; he grew up on a sharecropping farm where his family subsisted off the land. He brought that mentality to his restaurant kitchen and emphasized cooking with ingredients that were in season. That thought process has become a modern culinary mainstay and fuels the ethos behind the way many chefs now cook.

Paul Prudhomme was featured in five different cooking shows throughout his career, starting with "Fork in the Road" in 1995, and ending with "Always Cooking" in 2007. I remember watching him on public television. He was always good-natured and easygoing, and it was clear he loved sharing his knowledge of Creole and Cajun food with the world. Prudhomme was also a prolific cookbook writer with many titles under his belt, all related to his home state of Louisiana.

Despite his absence, you can still get a taste of his cooking via his seasoning blends, which are still on sale today. That includes his famous redfish blackening blend, but if you want to taste the entire collection, there's also a variety box that features all seven of his seasoning recipes, meant for use on anything from vegetables, seafood, to steak. If you'd like to try our take on blackening seasoning, however, we've got a recipe for you, and we guarantee it'll turn your boring chicken breast into something way more flavorful thanks to Prudhomme's legacy technique.