Louisiana’s best-known political analyst James Carville is known for speaking his mind. When it comes to seafood he tells everyone that there is none better than Louisiana seafood. He sits down at his New Orleans home for a lunch of Charbroiled Oysters, Fleur de Lis Shrimp, Crawfish Mac and Cheese, Shrimp Rémoulade, Gator Tacos and Seafood Gumbo from Drago’s Seafood Restaurant. Photo: Ewell Smith/Gulf Seafood News.
By Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
Life has been like a bowl of gumbo for James Carville, Louisiana’s most famous political consultant. For 77-years he has stirred the hot pot, not always sure of success. But when it comes to making real gumbo, with real seafood, there’s only one he accepts, Louisiana Gulf seafood.
Carville grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River, halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in a town named for his grandfather, Louis Arthur Carville. His father, Chester James Carville, was the postmaster and ran a small general store. His motherLucille raised eight children, of which he was the oldest.
James Carville and his wife Mary Matalin clown around during a segment of CBS Sunday morning. The two were promoting their book Love and War. Photo: CBS Sunday Morning
“Everyone called my mother Nippy,” said Carville. “During the Great Depression she used to give handouts to a hobo named Nip. The nickname sort of stuck.”
His mother had a love for cooking and collecting recipes. Seafood was a big part of Carville’s diet growing up. The outspoken political consultant remembers his mother’s stories about how her mother and her would cook seafood then store it in the cistern. “That’s how you stored food back then in a Louisiana summer. You had a cistern and it was damp and cool under there.”
“You know, mom was a great cook and so was my grandmother,” Carville told Gulf Seafood News. “It’s interesting because she was from northern Acadiana and the Carvilles were from the river parishes. There was a little dichotomy between the pork Cajuns and the seafood Cajuns, but we’ve pretty much blended the both together.”
The dichotomy was also noticeable when boiled seafood was served.
“In the northern part of Acadiana the Cajuns like their boiled seafood, you, know like boiled shrimp or crawfish, served hot,” he explained. “In New Orleans and the river parishes we tend to serve it cold more than hot. It’s just an interesting distinction. My dad always preferred his boiled shrimp cold and my mom liked them warm.”
James Carville greets Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac in 1992. He was instrumental in the President’s come from behind victory the final days of the campaign. Screen Capture: CBS This Morning
Dichotomy has followed Carville throughout his life. The Democratic political consultant, best known for securing the presidency for Bill Clinton with a come-from-behind win over George Bush and Ross Perot, has advised campaigns of candidates on both side’s of the aisle. Perhaps the most conspicuous was in marriage, the liberal Democrat tied the knot with conservative Republican political consultant Mary Matalin.
After Hurricane Katrina the pair decided to move to New Orleans from Washington, D.C. In an interview with Atlanta Magazine, Carville told the publication “Mary and I wanted to move to New Orleans before, God forbid, the town and this culture faded away.”
Culture is an important part of what defines James Carville. As a regular CNN Democratic political analyst he was known as the “Ragin’ Cajun”.
Aiding Louisina Seafood
It was the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill that sent Carville figuratively off the deep end. The spill severely threatened the livelihood of Louisiana seafood providers. He immediately stepped up to voice support for the seafood being shunned for fear of oil contamination by restaurants across the country.
Carville at the White at the signing of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 by President Clinton. Photo: The White House
Rising to seafood’s aid he filmed a gumbo-cooking segment on CNN with New Orleans Chef John Besh. The chef prepared gumbo from Carville’s mother’s cookbook, Louisiana Recipes collected by Nippy Carville. A small scandal arose on the set when Chef Besh added okra and Andouille sausage because he thought it was too thin, a move reportedly applauded by Carville’s wife.”
“You know, it’s one of the things that I’ve learned pretty quickly in life. There is no recipe for gumbo. It’s like anything you want it to be,” Carville said with a laugh. “There are the purists, but gumbo is all kinds of different things. You get ten people together and you get ten different gumbo recipes.”
When asked about his cooking skills, he admitted to being pretty good, but getting a little too old to do the cleanup.
“Making gumbo, to do it right, is pretty late labor intensive. But its well worth it,” said the Crescent City resident. “The thing mom and her mother used to do was make the crawfish bisque with stuffed heads. It worries me because we are losing a lot of stuff like this. Sitting with my sisters around a table, stuffing those heads was intricate and laborious. The number of person hours that goes into that, oh my God.”
It was during that timeframe Carville became one of the first to describe Louisiana as a state with a “working coast’, combining the oil and seafood industry.
CNN Democratic Strategist James Carville on air during the John King show. Carville also appeared on the network’s Crossfire program. Screen Capture: CNN
“If you go to Florida, California, Delaware, or New Jersey; the coasts are recreational. The Louisiana coast is a working coast,” he said. “I mean the best beach in Louisiana is the hundredth best beach in the country, right? I don’t think we’re beach people. The coast is our culture.”
He says there are huge cultural ramifications along the Louisiana coast and seafood is an integral part of that culture. “It’s how we live. I mean, if you think about it, the Louisiana coast produces–and I would love to be challenged on this–produces more high quality seafood than anywhere else in the world.”
Carville is convinced nowhere in the world is there better seafood than Louisiana. “The West Coast fish are not very good and the best East Coast fish is probably not even in the top ten Gulf fish.”
“Most of the stuff we harvest is really the highest quality stuff. I’m so with Dean Blanchard. Screw those Chinese shrimp, or Vietnamese crawfish. What you put in is your mouth is what counts. Every day of our lives we shouldn’t take for granted how good our seafood is here.”
Since 2019 the state’s shrimp landings have continuously declined due to weather events and only a reduced number of processing plants remain in operation after Hurricane Ida. What can that mean to the tourist industry and restaurants on Bourbon Street and the rest of the French Quarter?
Carville feels that the seafood industry is in desperate need of funds to rebuild.
Carville chats with Ewell Smith, of the Gulf Seafood Foundation and member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition, over lunch at his New Orleans home. Photo: Ewell Smith/Gulf Seafood News
“There should be low-interest funds for rebuilding processing plants lost during the storms,” he explained. “Everybody should get made whole. That is what a country is suppose to do. You cannot tell me we can’t come up with some of a kind of low-interest funding source to build back the infrastructure. We’re spending $2 trillion in fricking Afghanistan; you mean we can’t spend $50 million building back our seafood infrastructure. I mean this is ridiculous.”
The former TV personality feels there is an immediate need to find ways to give seafood businesses and entrepreneurs along the Louisiana coast favorable conditions to rebuild.
“If we lose our seafood, we’ll lose the whole thing. It’s why people come to Louisiana. They come here to eat shrimp and oysters and crabs and crawfish and speck and snappers and, you know, triple tail and everything else,” he said with conviction. “Let me tell you that sitting on a Friday night with a big platter of boiled shrimp or crabs and a cold beer– ain’t many places where you can do that. I got news for you.”
Culture Shock
Life has been like a bowl of gumbo for James Carville, Louisiana’s most famous political consultant. For 77-years he has stirred the hot pot, not always sure of success. But when it comes to making real gumbo, with real seafood, there’s only one he accepts, Louisiana Gulf seafood. Photo: Ewell Smith/Gulf Seafood News
Carville feels for too long the federal government and industry have simultaneously abused and neglected, patronized and plundered, as well as polluted the people of Louisiana. The state is now a national emergency.
“Just look at the land loss. If you had the kind of land loss in Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket that we have along the Louisiana coast, there would be emergency session of Congress,” said the Ragin Cajun. “I put some of the blame on us. We were not sufficiently attuned. This is a national tragedy that has coming right in front of our eyes. There are people that tell you we should just sit back and live north of the I-10/I-12 line. That doesn’t seem like a very attractive option. We have multiple profound crises in this state, and 80% of them are happening within the 30 miles of the Gulf.”
He feels it is imperative Louisiana replicates the success of the Dutch in the early 1950s after they nearly lost their country to rising water levels. “They spent three times their GDP learning to live with water. That change in hydro engineering made a fortune for the country around the world. If we made similar investments in the engineering and the way to deal with this we could export that knowledge all over the world, all over the world.”
Tommy Cvitanovich, owner of Drago’s Restaurant, and the Gulf Seafood Foundation made sure James Carville, his wife Mary Matalin and their executive assistant Allie Ollier had the finest Louisiana seafood cooked to perfection. Photo: Ewell Smith/Gulf Seafood News.
“I think our measure here is not a quality of life measurement, it is a way of life measurement. We’ll take the potholes just give us our red beans and rice. I will take August, but give me my oysters. This anchors our culture; more than any place, more than any city, this is what defines us. We have our own music, our own architecture, our own food and we even have our own funerals. Seafood is a big leg of that culture that you just can’t do without. We wouldn’t be Louisiana without seafood.”
As a long-term political consultant his advice to the Louisiana seafood industry is to market it as the best seafood in the world, “cause I think it is. When I think of Louisiana seafood, I think of excellence. I mean it just tastes good.”
He feels the public’s perception of the outstanding quality of Louisiana seafood differentiates it from the rest and should be labeled as the highest quality in the world.
“Our culture is under brutal assault; on environmental fronts, on economic fronts and others. We are a glorious, but we have to admit to ourselves, a very beleaguered culture,” he said.
As a long-term political consultant Carville’s advice to the Louisiana seafood industry is to market it as the best seafood in the world, “cause I think it is. When I think of Louisiana seafood, I think of excellence. I mean it just tastes good. I’m just continually shocked at the crappy seafood people to eat.” Photo: Ewell Smith/Gulf Seafood News
When asked whether it would survive, he begrudgingly said, “What difference does it make, we are going to try. It’ll survive if collectively we wanted to, and collectively we rebuild it, and build it the right way. You know, there’s a lot of help we need. But the biggest thing is we’ve got to tell ourselves is the truth. The consequences of dealing with it are often difficult.”
Although Carville admits he has no control over the culture’s survival, he will support it by eating as much Louisiana seafood possible. “I’m just continually shocked at the crappy seafood people eat.”
Right on, James!
Grew up with James and so happy with his success.