Here for the first time the famous food of Louisiana is presented in a cookbook written by a great creative chef who is himself world-famous. The extraordinary Cajun and Creole cooking of South Louisiana has roots going back over two hundred years, and today it is the one really vital, growing regional cuisine in America. No one is more responsible than Paul Prudhomme for preserving and expanding the Louisiana tradition, which he inherited from his own Cajun background.

Chef Prudhomme's incredibly good food has brought people from all over America and the world to his restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, in New Orleans. To set down his recipes for home cooks, however, he did not work in the restaurant. In a small test kitchen, equipped with a home-size stove and utensils normal for a home kitchen, he retested every recipe two and three times to get exactly the results he wanted. Logical though this is, it was an unprecedented way for a chef to write a cookbook. But Paul Prudhomme started cooking in his mother's kitchen when he was a youngster. To him, the difference between home and restaurant procedures is obvious and had to be taken into account.

So here, in explicit detail, are recipes for the great traditional dishes--gumbos and jambalayas, Shrimp Creole, Turtle Soup, Cajun "Popcorn," Crawfish Etouffee, Pecan Pie, and dozens more--each refined by the skill and genius of Chef Prudhomme so that they are at once authentic and modern in their methods.

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen is also full of surprises, for he is unique in the way he has enlarged the repertoire of Cajun and Creole food, creating new dishes and variations within the old traditions. Seafood Stuffed Zucchini with Seafood Cream Sauce, Panted Chicken and Fettucini, Veal and Oyster Crepes, Artichoke Prudhomme--these and many others are newly conceived recipes, but they could have been created only by a Louisiana cook. The most famous of Paul Prudhomme's original recipes is Blackened Redfish, a daringly simple dish of fiery Cajun flavor that is often singled out by food writers as an example of the best of new American regional cooking.

For Louisianians and for cooks everywhere in the country, this is the most exciting cookbook to be published in many years.

The diary of Frederic Baraga, Bishop of Upper Michigan. In 1831 Father Frederic Baraga came to this country from his native Slovenia, to bring Christianity to the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of the Old Northwest. Twenty years later, when Baraga first heard that the might be named Bishop of Upper Michigan, he began to keep a ""daybook"" or diary. Baraga wrote primarily in German, though he freely interspersed six other languages - Latin, English, French, Slovene, Chippewa, and Italian. Intended as a private document, the diary contains a log of Baraga's missionary journeys, his observations about daily weather conditions, ship movement on the lakes, and a running account of the various works the accomplished. Between the lines of the usually concise entries, however, are clues to Baraga's zeal, dedication, and generosity. His diary is testimony to the spiritual values that motivated him in spite of the hardships he endured and the distances he traveled. In light of the heroic renown surrounding him, it is fitting that in his own words and activities, Baraga reminds the reader that real dedication is found in everyday events. An introductory biography of Baraga, lengthy passages from his letters, vignettes about persons in the text and a comprehensive bibliography supplement the diary to yield an in-depth portrait of mid-nineteenth century life in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.