Seafood City

On Wednesday evening, I trekked out to the Jefferson Parish library to hear culinary legend, Al Scramuzza, speak about his early career in New Orleans' seafood industry.  Mr. Scramuzza is perhaps best known for popularizing the consumption of crawfish in New Orleans during the 1970s, although he started selling crawfish in the 50s.  It is pretty amazing to think that many New Orleanians in the first half of the twentieth century did not know how to cook or even eat crawfish!  Like others, I assumed that crawfish were always a part of New Orleans local food culture.  But, these delicious crustaceans were largely celebrated in the rural bayou areas of Louisiana and not in the City of New Orleans, which for most of its history favored shrimps and crabs.

Mr. Scramuzza is a great storyteller.  He self identifies as an "authentic Italian boy in New Orleans [...] born and raised in the French Market."  He has a huge personality and the audience members were completely entranced by his light-hearted demeanor.  You could practically feel the nostalgia seeping into every corner of the room as audience members thought back to some of the more memorable seafood commercials starring Mr. Scramuzza (akin to my version of Edgar Snyder and Associates?) Check out this video clip that features his early commercials and a bit about his career.

I was excited to hear him speak about his beginnings in the French Market and at a roadside fruit stands near Jackson Ave. and Dryades St.  Similar to my grandfather Elwood, Mr. Scramuzza opened up a fruit stand after returning from World War II and his food entrepreneurship continued to grow from there.

One of my favorite moments from the evening occurred when the entire audience began singing along to the Seafood City theme song from one of Mr. Scramuzza's commercials.  Check it out!  (Also, keep in mind that this man is over 90 years old!)