The 10th annual Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off was held last night at the Cajundome Convention Center, and for the first time in the competition's ten year history, a Queen was crowned as the winner of the competition.

Bonnie Breaux, now the Queen of Louisiana seafood will spend time traversing the country to tell the story of Louisiana's seafood. Usually the event takes place in New Orleans, but Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser moved it to Lafayette to help with the economy, which has struggled because of the downturn in the oil and gas industry.

Also, Nungesser says next year will be a repeat of this year. He told the crowd that Lafayette will be hosting the Cook-Off again next year, and he says one of the reasons why is the turnout was huge for last night's event.

Nungesser says he knows people in Lafayette love food, and the numbers bear that out as Lafayette has more restaurants per capita than any American city.

Bonnie Breaux is the chef of The St. John Restaurant in St. Martinville. She will now move on to the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans.

If she wins the August 5 competition she would be crowned the best Seafood Chef in America.

Her winning dish was a black drum with breading and crusted cracklin on it, then she added a fennel marmalade. She placed the drum on top of Potatoes and sauteed vegetables that were infused with Abita Amber. Then she topped it with blue-point crabmeat.

The Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off was started by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board.

 

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