Gonzales, Jambalaya Capital of the World

The town of Gonzales is named for a man everyone called Tee-Joe. Joseph Stonewall Gonzales opened a general store and post office in May of eighteen eighty-seven in a small settlement between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and residents adopted his surname for the place. When the town was incorporated in nineteen twenty-two, Tee-Joe Gonzales became its first mayor.

The community had deep roots in outdoor cooking, and by the nineteen sixties its jambalaya cooks had become famous across Ascension Parish. On June tenth, nineteen sixty-eight, Louisiana Governor John McKeithen officially proclaimed Gonzales the Jambalaya Capital of the World, and that same month the first Jambalaya Festival was held, with thirteen cooks competing for the championship. Today the festival draws thousands of visitors each summer and Gonzales has grown into a city of around twelve thousand people.