Here we are at Langlois Culinary Crossroads, and we are going to try to learn how to make
a New Orleans signature dish: gumbo. I tend to think that gumbo is the ultimate metaphor
for New Orleans culture. You know if America is a melting pot then New Orleans is gumbo.
A big gumbo!
Excellent! So what would you, if you were describing what gumbo was to just an ordinary
- a non-New Orleanian? What would you describe it?
That's the hardest question to ask. It is heart, it is soul, it is love, it is your
grandmother, it is your mama, it is all of that in one big dish and so it represents
you and your family and New Orleans and Louisiana as well.
D'Amico: That is fantastic. All of your gumbos are going to start with
a roux, so that is the first step to make it happen.
The essence!
There is no such thing as one New Orleans culture, it is just sort of what sticks, what
proves durable, what works, and gumbo is sort of that. It is things that just develop overtime
and if you like it a certain way you keep making it that way and if you find better
ingredients then that is what ends up in your mama's cookbook and your own pot.
Now that we have this going; we are going to carefully add our celery and our bell pepper.
So now we are going to add our andouille sausage, it is from my hometown, and add our chicken,
and so now what we are going to do is add our stocks. So you have this stock right there.
Creole cuisine, originally French but then we have then influence of the Africans with
their okra, the Native Americans with their corn, the Spanish with their peppers, the
Germans with their sausages.
For all our Leonard Reed fans in the audience, one could say that no one person knows how
to make a gumbo. We are borrowing things from Italian influence with basil, Creole influence,
I mean it requires not just individual different people contributing but the entire cultural
legacy's that they exist from. The thought that comes to mind is that it is greater than
the sum of its parts. If we took out one of the parts one of the things that someone shared
it wouldn't make it any less gumbo. So we boil this down a bit and it smells great.
So when do we get to taste it?
Well you have to graduate.
What do you mean?
You have earned pleats in your toque.
Awesome! My head is large.
So we are going to serve this and use my favorite tool in the kitchen, called the spoodle.
These look fantastic.
So let's get some spoons, are you ready to eat?
Lead the way.
Alright!
What I think is amazing about shared food, especially, is that it has this potential
to build what we call social capital, a valuable relationship with someone else that you can
rely on later. Gumbo is the ultimate metaphor for the New Orleans experience. It is all
this different cultures coming together and sharing through the process of exchange, the
process of cooking is obviously a parallel to that exchange process because the flavors
themselves come together. If I tasted any of the individual ingredients, I don't think
I could have predicted how good this gumbo tastes. I came in here thinking that gumbo
was a good metaphor for economic exchange and complex spontaneous order, and well, I
am confirmed in that.
You are right.
So what is cooking gumbo have to do with liberty or social science? Well if you like gumbo,
you'll love spontaneous orders. Arguably they operate on the same principles. It took
open ended experimentation trial and error and creativity to come up with gumbo to contribute
to the flavors that stood the test of time. Spontaneous order is a very similar concept.
It requires the context of liberty it requires the open ended system to get those forms of
trial and error that prove successful overtime.
So if you want to learn about how more aspects of society operate like spontaneous order
and gumbo be sure to click here and subscribe for more Learn Liberty videos. Or if you want
to learn how to get involved and spread these ideas, make society more delicious and durable
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