Top left, Gumbo cook-off contestants brought their ready-to-eat culinary creations to compete for the top prize. Top right, Gonzo’s Barbecue from Luling brought their Tex Mex and Tongue and Cheek boudin to compete in the festival cook-off. Bottom left, Joe Nick Patoski in the back seat and Kevin Russell riding shotgun take the Backbone Tavern’s pink Cadillac to the dance hall for the opening ceremony of Sunday’s Boudin and Gumbo Festival. Bottom right, Patoski, a celebrity judge and Wimberley local, presides over the gumbo portion of the cooking competition.
Photos by Jason and Celeste Cook
Devil's Backbone Boudin and Gumbo Cookoff
Ranch to Market Road 32 dips out of the Blanco River Valley and climbs the peak of Texas Hill County. Its serpentine crawl across the top of the hills gives it the appearance that the crooked backbone of the Devil is pushing up from beneath. It is normally a calm drive to stop and look over the edge of the hills and admire the valley below. But on Sunday, cars draped the edges of the roadway as overflow parking overfilled with hundreds of wanna-be Cajuns – and perhaps a few authentic ones ‑ who joining the stampede to Devil's Backbone Tavern for the Boudin and Gumbo cookoff.
The brainchild of local sausage cooking king Bill Dumas, some the best cajun cooks from across Texas and even portions of Louisiana, competed with some of the eccentric styles of boudin known to man. There was crawfish- boudin-stuffed empanadas covered in gumbo gravy or duck, duck gumbo and barbacoa boudin tamales wrapped in a smoked banana leaf– and those were just a few of the incredible tastes that didn't walk away with a trophy.
Smoak Town BBQ from Fate, Texas was the Grand Prize Boudin winner with an incredible Chicken Fried Boudin Ball. Smiley’s BBQ was the People’s Choice Boudin winner with Pork Belly Burnt End Boudin Balls. Tate Farms, from Rockwall, was the Freak of Nature Boudin winner with a Boudin Corn Dog.
The party was so popular, Devil's Backbone Tavern responded in the only way anyone can after a day of a little too much fun posting on Facebook,' CLOSED MONDAY Sorry Folks, y’all drank every beer we had.'
