Crawfish are a staple of Louisiana cuisine and culture, and almost every Louisianian claims that his or her recipe is the best one around. Finally, Baton Rouge residents will get the opportunity to prove who is the crawfish king.
The Junior Achievement of Greater Baton Rouge and the Big Buddy Program are bringing crustacean competition to the city this year with the first annual Crawfish King Cook-Off on Friday May 2.
Michele Carbo, Junior Achievement development manager said her organization and the Big Buddy Program have been planning the event for over a year, and she’s sure it will be a big success.
“People will be able to listen to great music, taste crawfish, see what these teams have to offer and help us crown the first ever crawfish king,” Carbo said. “We are really excited for it all to come together.”
The event will feature 40 teams battling it out using over 4,000 pounds of crawfish to impress a panel of community and culinary leaders.
Attendees will have a wide variety of crawfish to try as each team will bring their own flavor to the boil.
“Some of our teams have secret recipes of spices and seasonings that they’re going bring out to help them win but others are brining out their recipes here for the first time,” Carbo said. “Overall the teams are very mysterious to the secrets of their success.”
Carbo said she hopes the event will bring more attention to the Junior Achievement of Greater Baton Rouge, a volunteer organization that teaches financial education and entrepreneurship skills to students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
“We teach students real world concepts that are going to help them connect the classroom to their real lives,” Carbo said.
She said the two groups are excited to bring this event to Baton Rouge, which has never before had a crawfish boil of this caliber.
All you can eat crawfish tickets to the event are $20. The Crawfish King Cook-Off is located downtown behind the Live After 5 stage.