Workers are beginning to set up the grounds of the Smoked Meat Festival and cooks are starting to prepare for the weekend.
“Normally we starting cooking a week before but this year we’ve been a little lazy and have only cooked maybe twice so far,” said Teet’s Food Store Manager Luke Deville.
Deville has been cooking with friends for the past five years, something that has been in his family for decades.
“My dad and my uncle used to cook back in 1992 when it started. They would go and cook year after year,” Deville said.
Deville has been busy with work and hasn’t been as dedicated to the competition but he says he isn’t worried.
“It’s always last minute. That makes it exciting. I know of one dish, but I know I need 3 or 4.”
Deville says the less planning the better.
“The first year, we did a last minute dish and it won first prize. We learned the less pressure the better. So we just throw it in there and whatever happens, happens.”
The Smoked Meat cookoff begins Saturday, May 18, 2019, at 9:00 am in Ville Platte. For more on the festival, click here: http://www.lasmokedmeatfestival.com/
From bigger chains to smaller mom and pop stores smoked and specialty meat is everywhere in Acadiana.
Beyond serving up delicious cuts of our favorite meat, these stores continue to take part in an old way of life
It’s Cajun tradition, you had Boucherie and you used everything on the hog. boudin stuff like that,” Jude Burton of Rhea’s Specialty Meat said.
From Boucheries to a form of food preservation, smoked meats have been around in Acadiana for generations, and with the quality of shops still around, it looks like it’ll be a way of life for generations to come.
