Making the perfect gumbo at Lynn Meadows

With the cold temperature we’ve been having doesn’t a nice piping hot bowl of gumbo sound good?

Some hopeful chefs gathered at Lynn Meadows Discovery Center tonight to learn just how to make the perfect gumbo.

Julian Brunt taught the class. He has been making gumbo for 30 years and has written about it just as long in places like ‘Mississippi Magazine’ and multiple cookbooks.

One of the main tips he gave to the students was to not rush anything when making gumbo. The perfect batch takes time and there aren’t a lot of shortcuts you can take.

Brunt also said one of the most difficult tasks he has noticed for people can be the roux. “Everybody always talks about the roux and that is very difficult and the advice that I give people is if you want to learn how to make a roux, burn one first because then you know how to do it. Don’t rush the vegetables, takes about 20 minutes to get the vegetables done right. I fortify my stock with chicken bones, i’ll cook a chicken and de-bone it and add that to the stock and that helps. I’ve done this class, I don’t know how many times, and it’s just a lot of fun.”

Brunt was accompanied by Chef Robby Holmes who assisted with the roux and also baked some bread for the event. Brunt hopes to have another class here at Lynn Meadows in the near future.