Marcelle Bienvenu

By Judy Walker

Marcelle Bienvenu is beloved in the world of Louisiana cuisine for many things. Perhaps it’s because she is a superb storyteller, informative and often hilarious. Her 1991 cookbook, full of family stories, has perhaps the best title in cookbook history: Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?

Liz Williams, founder of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, notes that “Marcelle Bienvenu loves to eat, and isn’t afraid to let you know it.

“Her recipes are really stories of how central food and people are to life.”

Born in St. Martinville into a large newspaper family, she has experienced, written about and educated folks worldwide about Cajun and Creole food, often working behind the scenes. She was mentored by Ella Brennan when she worked at Commander’s Palace, and has said she was influenced by Brennan’s leadership style.

In her twenties, she lobbied for and contributed to the Creole and Acadian cookbook for the wildly influential Time-Life Foods of the World series. She co-wrote Emeril Lagasse’s first four cookbooks and gave The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book its last revision for the Sesquicentennial Edition in 1987, translating “gills” into modern measurements. Her many cookbook titles attest to her decades as the most popular cookbook collaborator in the state.

I was fortunate to be Marcelle’s editor for several years. We co-wrote Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune after Katrina, published in 2008. When the book was nominated for a James Beard Award, we attended the ceremony and had a wonderful weekend in New York. With Marcelle, I experienced places I wouldn’t have gone on my own: an exclusive restaurant where she knew the chef (of course), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a high-end jewelry store to see historic displays. We had several cocktails after we didn’t win. Around that time, Marcelle became a chef instructor at Nicholls State University.

“Marcelle Bienvenu possesses a lifetime of fascinating experiences involving Louisiana culture and cuisine. We were so fortunate to have her share these gems with faculty and students of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute for more than ten years,” said John Kozar, director of the Institute in Thibodaux. “There is no one quite like her.”

One of her Nicholls students, New Orleans chef Michael Gulotta, of Maypop and Mopho, has been nominated for the James Beard Best Chef South award for the last four years.

“There’s so much to love about Marcelle,” said journalist John Pope. “For starters, she has the smarts. She knows her subject and her region thoroughly, and relays what she knows so engagingly, leavening the facts with innate charm and beaucoup anecdotes about her friends and family.

“Marcelle doesn’t teach. She performs, and anyone who listens to her can’t help being bewitched.”