The 33rd Annual World Championship Gumbo Cookoff was recently held in New Iberia, Louisiana! We were amazed by the incredibly delicious samples we were able to taste! Everyone knows the food in Louisiana has a reputation of being amazing! From etouffee to shrimp creole, from boudin to tasso, those are just a few of the delicious food options you can find all over Acadiana!
The best gumbo you’ll ever eat!
This annual event features over 75 vendors and welcomes over 30,000 (on average) every year! The actual event is free, though you will have to pay if you want to sample the gumbo! It’s very reasonable, however, considering the quality of the food you get to try! To purchase the gumbo samples you need to purchase tickets – $1 each (so we purchased 40).
For a sample of the gumbo from a particular vendor you’ll give them tickets – typically 4 tickets for chicken and sausage gumbo (and other variations) or 5 tickets for seafood gumbo. All proceeds go to raise money for the New Iberia Chamber of Commerce and their activities in the area!
Amazing Gumbo cooked from scratch
Each team has to start from scratch – no jars of roux here! They start cooking about 6am and have to prepare 30+ quarts of their gumbo to sell in the competition – talk about a lot of work! The quality of the food is amazing – there were so many outstanding gumbos and it was difficult to choose our favorite! At the end of the day we picked our favorite and they finished in the top 5, so I guess our tastebuds were on point!
Great music, lots of history
We also saw Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie and they were great! They had people dancing the whole time we were there! Check them out here: https://www.genodelafosemusic.com/
New Iberia is a beautiful part of South Louisiana, also known as Acadiana. Spanish colonists settled the area around 1779 and named it Nueva Iberia (after the Iberian Peninsula), so the name didn’t change much when he French moved in shortly after. The town is located about 20 miles southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana, so there will be tons of things to do if you want to visit the area! Between New Iberia, Abbeville and Lafayette, it’s hard to pick our favorite town in Acadiana!
Here’s a few links you might find interesting!
New Iberia Chamber of Commerce Gumbo Cookoff: https://iberiachamber.org/gumbocookoff
World Championship Gumbo Cookoff: https://www.iberiatravel.com/events/world-championship-gumbo-cookoff
Explore Louisiana: Lafayette Area: https://www.explorelouisiana.com/areas/lafayette-area
Iberia Travel: Seafood Gumbo Recipe: https://www.iberiatravel.com/blog/article/world-championship-seafood-gumbo-recipe
Thanks for stopping by!
