Chef Isaac Toups’ dirty rice

Not long ago, I was in New Orleans researching traditional Louisiana foods for a book I’m completing, and I met a friend for lunch at Toups’ Meatery. The North Carrollton Avenue spot was the perfect place to mull over the Cajun and Creole fare’s long, strange journey over the last 300 years. Toups’ fit the bill because Rayne native Chef Isaac Toups has been gaining attention for his reinterpreted Cajun fare—including stellar charcuterie and grilled oysters, which went down alarmingly fast that afternoon.

Born in Acadia Parish, Toups grew up surrounded by great home cooks, Cajun meat markets and rice ponds. It’s hard to grow up in that setting and not form strong opinions about how food should be prepared and enjoyed, but one of the dishes about which Toups has the strongest opinions is rice. In the restaurant, it’s got to be perfect or the whole pot gets tossed, he told me. To that end, below is a great how-to video in which Toups demonstrates how to make his family’s longstanding dirty rice, recently featured on tastingtable.com. The recipe is included as well—just in time for Thanksgiving.