Industry Legend Chef Paul Prudhomme Has Died

Industry legend Chef Paul Prudhomme died Thursday, October 8, at the age of 75. Prudhomme is widely recognized for spreading the popularity of Cajun cooking through the foods, spices, and recipes of his K-Paul’s restaurant, Magic Seasoning Blends, numerous cookbooks, and television and personal appearances. Prudhomme died after a brief illness.

In 2008, QA Editor met Chef Paul Prudhomme to feature him and his company, Magic Seasoning Blends, as the magazine’s cover profile. Following are some excerpts from that article which give a glance at Chef Paul, his philosophy, and his life.

With a flourish, Chef Paul Prudhomme added his name to the inscription in the cookbook, then looked up and said, “Tell your daughter the first part is my personal philosophy. The second part is how she should live her life.”

His philosophy — “Good cooking. Good eating. Good loving.” — and accompanying grin is familiar to almost anyone who has met Chef Paul, seen his TV program or even picked up a catalog of his Magic Seasoning Blends. But it is his words to live by — “Quality gets all.” — that brought Chef Paul himself from a farm in Opelousas, La., as the youngest of 13 children to world renown for his ability to blend just the right spices for just the right taste and produce a blended product that holds prime real estate in grocery stores across the nation.

At Prudhomme’s 125,000-square-foot Magic Seasonings blending plant in New Orleans, 20 products and thousands of custom blends are created, packaged and shipped to retailers, foodservice chefs and food manufacturers around the world. While Prudhomme maintains a role in the plant processes, it is the research and development that is really the best job for him, he said.

Chef Paul’s appreciation for the magic of good food started at an early age. The kids could all have been outside fighting, then come to the dinner table mad at each other; but once they started eating, you could tell when it was a really good meal. “In no time at all, in minutes, they had forgotten they were ever mad at each other. Everyone was talking and having a good time,” Prudhomme said. “I recognized that probably by about seven or eight years old. I remember thinking, ‘Food did that.’ And it’s still with me.”

It was from this restaurant that the seasoning company evolved. Customers would commend the food’s flavor, asking “What are you putting on it? Can I get some?” So the restaurant started giving a bit of seasoning wrapped in foil. But soon, those customers began coming back asking to purchase the seasoning, so K-Paul’s put together hand-labeled, plastic, zip-close jewelry bags filled with the seasoning. As demand grew, Chef Paul realized the business potential, and opened the Magic Seasonings plant in 1983. 

While maintaining his role as formulator of the Magic Seasonings Blends, Prudhomme has become a national figure, appearing on talk shows, hosting a cooking show, consulting with restaurant chains and major food manufacturers to develop specialty dishes and cooking for heads of state, including President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 inauguration, and at the Congressional Barbecue on the White House lawn in 2007.