This book focuses on the half that is good for you. I was so fortunate to be born into a happy, supportive family who loved entertaining, cooking, dancing and music. More importantly, I was raised by a true artist and renaissance man, James “Jimmy” Sothern. Always ahead of his time, my father engaged in organic gardening before it was trendy, challenged policy makers on environmental issues, such as saving the honeybees from pesticides, even before the dangers were known. He designed and constructed authentic, true-to-form cajun cottages using recycled cypress from plantation homes, built furniture with reclaimed wood from Tulane University auditorium bleachers and cocktail bars using bamboo found floating in the Gulf of Mexico. Along with lifetime friends, he restored a 40’ sailing sloop from the hull upward, which they appropriately named, the Rum Runner. He also hosted, cooked and performed for thousands of visitors from around the world at The Camp Seafood Restaurant and Swamp Tours on Grand Caillou Bayou in lower Terrebonne parish.

Jimmy spent years of research documenting environmental and cultural insults and influencing local governments to take action to restore the wetlands and preserve the cajun way of life in South Louisiana. His authenticity, humor, kindness, especially to those most vulnerable, and willingness to engage anyone in conversation are threaded throughout this cookbook. My extended family and my experience growing up on a bayou in a small town in South Louisiana influenced not only my cooking but my quest for scientific answers to how food and movement influence health and prevent disease. It seems that our grandparents and their grandparents already had it right: Eat as close to nature as you possibly can. Fresh, local seafood and produce grown in home gardens provided the ingredients in this chapter’s recipes. Following this trend led to my Dad leading a very active life until the age of 90 years.

Two weeks prior to his passing, he was dancing and singing to his grandson, “One Monday morning, I got up late, there was Mr. Monkey, standing by my gate….I don’t know what to do the monkey won’t do……I jump up, monkey jump up too” (Harry Belafonte, Calypso, 1960)