# Prudhomme nicked by stray bullet **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 26, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841 "2008-03-26T22:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/1 "2008-03-26T22:07:25Z")
> **[Prudhomme scratched by falling bullet](https://www.nola.com/news/prudhomme-scratched-by-falling-bullet/article_76edb8be-6f91-5032-86d5-21ebb4d87996.html)** > > TED JACKSON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE via Fark: [FARK.com: (3492318) Chef Paul Prudhomme has bullet bounce off him. I shot the chef, but I did not shoot the maître d'](http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3492318) But the reason I’m posting this is Fark’s headline: "I shot the chef, but I did not shoot the maitre d’ ". 😃 Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/2 "2008-03-26T22:49:46Z")
Well to be honest, it would be hard to miss him. ---
**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/3 "2008-03-26T22:51:14Z")
[QUOTE=Encinitas] Well to be honest, it would be hard to miss him. [/QUOTE] Because he’s big enough to have his own gravitational field. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/4 "2008-03-26T23:24:00Z")
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle] But the reason I’m posting this is Fark’s headline: "I shot the chef, but I did not shoot the maitre d’ ". 😃 Brilliant! [/QUOTE] \ It should have been “I shot the big chef …” I’m just glad I got to eat Cajun food before he distorted it in the eyes of most of America. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/5 "2008-03-27T02:49:15Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I’m just glad I got to eat Cajun food before he distorted it in the eyes of most of America. [/QUOTE] So, you’re saying it might have been justified? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/6 "2008-03-27T03:12:08Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I’m just glad I got to eat Cajun food before he distorted it in the eyes of most of America. [/QUOTE] I can’t vouch for the veracity of the claim, but I met an older guy a few years back who claimed to have once worked under Paul Prudhomme, and he related to me how Prudhomme “invented” Cajun blackened cooking. Basically, he said Prudhomme was trying to cook one evening while drunk off his ass, and he fell asleep/passed out with the cast iron skillet still sitting on the hot stove. Burned the shit out of whatever it was he was cooking. When he woke up he ate it anyway and decided he liked it, and took it to market. True or not, it’s an amusing story. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/7 "2008-03-27T13:51:07Z")
Note that the bullet “bounced off [of] him”. Now _that_ is a man with some serious padding. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/8 "2008-03-27T14:45:52Z")
If he’d been out with the veep, he might have been able to skip seasoning after getting “peppered.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/9 "2008-03-27T15:03:44Z")
Hate to burst everyones bubble and I like a good fat joke, but Prudhomme isn’t that big anymore. I can’t find a cite but I think he had bypass surgery. He has had severe problems with his legs due to his weight and had to drop a ton. He still has to use a scooter most of the time. I met him about two years ago and he was normal person sized. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/10 "2008-03-27T15:07:45Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I’m just glad I got to eat Cajun food before he distorted it in the eyes of most of America. [/QUOTE] I attended a cooking demonstration he conducted back in the eighties while promoting his new line of spices. I overhead his wife (now deceased unfortunately), standing at the side and chatting with a member of the crowd while Paul gave autographs, comment that when they travel they never eat Cajun food at any restaurant outside southern Louisiana. He also had (has?) a very successful restaurant in New Orleans, K-Paul’s, which was known at one time for having lines around the block of locals waiting to get in. Perhaps Cajun food had already been distorted for most Americans and he merely wised 'em up to the real thing. His wife was a very trim, well-spoken and well-dressed professional sort or person while he was so heavy - and his legs so bad - that he had to get around the store we were in on an electric scooter. She died some years later of cancer and he’s apparently still going strong. Ironic. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/11 "2008-03-27T15:21:51Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist] I attended a cooking demonstration he conducted back in the eighties while promoting his new line of spices. I overhead his wife (now deceased unfortunately), standing at the side and chatting with a member of the crowd while Paul gave autographs, comment that when they travel they never eat Cajun food at any restaurant outside southern Louisiana. He also had (has?) a very successful restaurant in New Orleans, K-Paul’s, which was known at one time for having lines around the block of locals waiting to get in. Perhaps Cajun food had already been distorted for most Americans and he merely wised 'em up to the real thing. His wife was a very trim, well-spoken and well-dressed professional sort or person while he was so heavy - and his legs so bad - that he had to get around the store we were in on an electric scooter. She died some years later of cancer and he’s apparently still going strong. Ironic. [/QUOTE] As I am from New Jersey I can not claim to know what undistorted Cajun food would be. I just know Pruhomme is a damn fine chef. Two years ago he came to the military base I was deployed to and did a cooking demonstration. Not only was there a demonstration, he brought a ton of chefs with him and the room was filled with free food, all of it was his recipes. Fantastic food. I bought a couple of his cookbooks use some of his recipes which worked out great. I made one of his soups for Thanksgiving and my family told me it was the best they ever had. The man knows how to cook, it’s not all hype. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prudhomme-nicked-by-stray-bullet/442841/12 "2008-03-27T15:38:34Z")
I know what you mean. He cooked a chicken casserole in a large skillet, adding corn, onions, etc. multiple times and explaining that doing so imparts distinctly different flavors to each ingredient as they cook for different lengths of time. For example, corn cooked long enough and at a higher temperature caramelizes and corn added later and at a lower flame doesn’t, so you get two different corn flavors, etc. That chicken casserole was one of the very best things I’ve tasted in my life. It also had a very pleasant aftertaste that lingered an hour or so afterward. Good stuff. He was fun, too. Ornery sense of humor.