Humble beginnings have not stopped intergalactic growth

The focus of the Teche Area, of South Louisiana and of visitors from around the U.S. and perhaps the world, will be on downtown New Iberia this weekend for the World Championship Gumbo Cookoff.

This event has grown from humble but enthusiastic beginnings into a major event that is getting more and more notice regionally and nationally, including this week from Bob Blumer and the Glutton for Punishment television program that’s part of the Food Network. They were at Victor’s Cafeteria Wednesday and will be around town through the Gumbo Cookoff filming an episode to air next year.

It’s amazing to consider this year’s cookoff will be the 20th. I was involved with the Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce when we came up with the idea of a cooking competition as a fundraiser, and brainstormed a number of ideas before settling on gumbo, suggested by Mike Granger who was a local banker at the time.

I suggested calling it the Intergalactic Gumbo Cookoff, trying to convey that for sure you’ll find the best gumbo here of anywhere, but the group decided the best gumbo in the world would be a strong enough attraction to help grow the event.

Those first years of the cookoff saw the cooking teams and setups a lot less elaborate than today. There were plenty of gumbos cooked with booths that included just a folding table and a few folding chairs, a burner, pot and not much more. For sure there were few of the elaborately decorated booths filled with big groups of workers in costume, fewer of the fancy cooking rigs so common to cookoffs of recent years. I read there were 23 teams that first year. Recent years have seen 80 teams competing.

Tabasco has been a major sponsor of the event along with the Chamber the last few years and this year is joined by the Louisiana Seafood Board and the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

There is live music in Bouligny Plaza tonight from 7 to 10 p.m., the Food Fest Saturday along with more music, from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then the Battle of the Rouxs Sunday with gumbo served starting at 11 a.m. and more music until 3:30 p.m.

There’s no problem stirring up some fun this weekend nor finding something good to eat. I’ll see you at the Gumbo Cookoff!

Tebow or no Tebow, that’s been the big question of the week as college football fans try to figure out if No. 4 LSU will have to face No. 1 Florida at full strength, with amazing quarterback Tim Tebow running its offense.

Tebow suffered a concussion in his last game. Florida had an open-date last weekend but as this is written, there are questions if Tebow will play or not.

I’d rather see LSU play the Gators at full strength, so if we win, when we win, there are no asterisks suggesting it wasn’t legitimate. But I’d hate to see Tebow hurt seriously, so hope they hold him out this week in an abundance of caution, lest he risk more serious injury.

Whatever happens, let’s hope those Gators are Tiger Bait Saturday night.

Will Chapman is publisher of The Daily Iberian.