About Us

Jambalaya Girl’s products offer an easy and flavorful way to bring authentic tastes, culture, and community of Louisiana to homes across the world. Proudly made in New Orleans, all Jambalaya Girl products are specially blended by Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Seasoning Blends.

Founded in 2010, Jambalaya Girl New Orleans Food Products is an official Tourism Partner of Louisiana Travel Association and a Certified WBE. Jambalaya Girl’s products are packaged for grocery, food service and custom gifts.

The Jambalaya Girl 

 

  

“The girl with the fork earrings!” - her caricature (special thanks to Caricature Artist, Ricky Nobile, for penning the original “Jambalaya Girl” caricature) is recognizable on all product packaging by her signature fork earrings.

Interview with Kristen Preau, CEO & Owner, Jambalaya Girl New Orleans Food Products

What made you start Jambalaya Girl?
My ambition has always been to be an ambassador for New Orleans. "Jambalaya Girl" started as a childhood nickname — a tribute to the many hours spent cooking jambalaya in my dad's cast iron pots, even at the first French Quarter Fest. My family generously served hundreds of gallons of jambalaya to support our community. In turn, a local chef offered to make life easier by turning our scratch recipe into the Jambalaya Mix we have today. And it was too good to keep to ourselves! Hence, I started to fulfill my life's ambition with my own brand.

What was the moment you realized you could scale Jambalaya Girl domestically?
One of the biggest fundraisers I did was a tailgating jambalaya tour across the country for hurricane relief. No matter what city we cooked in, they all loved our jambalaya and wanted to talk about New Orleans. People crave true Louisiana flavor all over the world, and I knew we could satisfy their cravings with my easy-to-cook food products made in NOLA.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
When a customer reaches out to us not only to talk about how much they love our recipes but also how much they love New Orleans. To encourage more interactions like this, we started the "Jambalaya Girl Cooking Club." We now get pictures and messages from customers both locally and internationally, and we send them a personal thank you note with a lagniappe gift.

 Steeped in the History of the New Orleans Cooking Scene

Jambalaya Girl’s Dad, Paul, used to specially manufacture outdoor cookers for some of the top chefs in New Orleans and he always cooked classic New Orleans recipes, like our jambalaya, to showcase his cooking equipment.

Paul manufactured the gas burner that Chef Paul Prudhomme used to prepare his famous Blackened Red Fish recipe.  The burner is featured in Chef Paul’s mail order catalog and is pictured here in his first cookbook, Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. (1984)

    

The Preau family cooked some of the first pots of Jambalaya to be served during the early years of French Quarter Fest. Pictured above are Paul and Kristen “Jambalaya Girl” in Jackson Square during French Quarter Fest 1988; Paul taking a break from cooking, in Jackson Square during French Quarter Fest 1988.

 


Fun fact: Cook Me Somethin’ Mister still uses the same 40 gallon cast iron pot that was used to cook at the very first French Quarter Fest in 1983. That’s one well seasoned pot!

 The Preau Family

 Paul and Karen Preau, their son, Kevin, and daughter, Kristen, grew up cooking and serving countless bowls of Jambalaya!