Communion: Feasting Through Seasons of a Cajun Life

Author of Mosquito Supper Club, James Beard Award Winner for Best Book: U.S. Foodways, IACP’s Book of the Year, and an NPR Best Book of the Year, Melissa Martin shares a year in the life of South Louisiana cooking and all the dishes that are eaten to celebrate life’s big and small moments.

People on the Louisiana bayou mark the seasons of the Cajun calendar with traditions, emotions, and gatherings around the table to feast. In this highly anticipated next book from the author of the James Beard Award-winning Mosquito Supper Club, Melissa Martin shares a year of celebrations, both big and small, through 100 traditional Southern Louisiana recipes that combine humble ingredients, such as onions, potatoes, and peppers, and the local bounty, including shrimp and crabs. Made-to-share recipes like Carnival Crawfish Boil and Etouffee ring in the New Year and kickstart the Carnival season, which is a time for abundance and decadence. Lent unfolds with simple, fresh foods like Cabbage Slaw and Fried Fish Collars. Summer ushers in the bright bounty of shrimp season. Families and friends band together in October for boucheries, feasting on Smoked Sausage and Deer Tamales, then gather with loved ones for hearty homey holiday dishes like Fried Turkey, Holiday Dressing, and Red Velvet Cake. With illuminating sidebars and stunning photography, Martin illustrates what Cajun people already know: the table is a place for restoration, nourishment, and, most importantly, communion.

Melissa M. Martin grew up on the Louisiana coast and has lived in New Orleans for 25 years. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans, she worked as an adult literacy teacher before moving to California following Hurricane Katrina. Working in the Napa Valley, she honed her self-taught culinary skills to a professional level. Martin returned to New Orleans and opened Satsuma Café, a casual farm-to-table restaurant, and worked at Café Hope, a nonprofit restaurant, teaching at-risk youth to cook seasonal food. In 2014, she opened Mosquito Supper Club, a Cajun restaurant created to celebrate the bounty of the shrimpers, oystermen, crabbers, fin and crawfish fishermen, and farmers that define bayou cuisine. Her first book, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou, was named a Best New Cookbook by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, NPR, The Splendid Table, Eater, Epicurious, and more. It won the James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year in U.S. Foodways and was awarded Cookbook of the Year and Best American Cookbook by the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals). Follow her on Instagram at @mosquitosupperclub and on Twitter at @mosquitosupper.