Gumbo: a love story

Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou. By Ken Wells.W.W. Norton; 288 pages; $26.95 and £18.99.

GUMBO IS A stew, usually served over rice. On that Louisianan cooks can agree. After that, things become contentious. Should roux, a fat-and-flour mixture, form the foundation of gumbo? Usually, but not always. And what sort of fat? These days most chefs prefer vegetable oil or butter; in colonial Louisiana, the fat of choice was bear lard. What is the right thickener—okra, filé powder (pounded sassafras roots, a Choctaw contribution) or neither? Most believe the dish should never contain fin-fish, but it can accommodate almost anything else: chicken, sausage, shellfish and, in harder times, rabbit, squirrel, whelk and smoked raccoon. There are as many ways to cook gumbo as there are people who make it.