LEO's Eats with Louisville HotBytes.comIf you've never heard of the wondrous holiday bird called turducken, you just haven't been paying attention. If you've ever seen and actually tasted one, you fall into a much more exalted category, as this Cajun feast is so difficult to prepare that it's almost as rare as the dodo bird.
Purportedly the invention of Paul Prudhomme, the rotund chef at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, the turducken is a combination of a partially deboned turkey that's been stuffed with a deboned duck, stuffed in turn with a deboned chicken. Spicy Cajun stuffing is piped into the inner spaces like tasty grout; the hulking combination is roasted, sliced crosswise into impressive rounds, and served with a spicy Cajun sauce.
Prudhomme claims that he dreamed up the idea as a way to bulk up a turkey for a holiday buffet back in the '60s. Some in Acadiana dispute this tale, arguing that the celebrity chef merely adopted an old Cajun tradition. Prudhomme, in a canny defense, has trademarked the name.
Whatever. Making turducken is an all-day project, a culinary rarity that's seldom seen outside South Louisiana, although the truly obsessed may purchase one on the Internet for home cooking.
Recently, however, turducken has been almost as commonplace at Louisville's Varanese restaurant as, well, pecan-encrusted mahi-mahi or grilled salmon smothered in a caramelized mandarin orange sauce. Chef John Varanese has come up with a downsized, simplified version that can be made in small packages practical for service as a nightly special.
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Varanese
2106 Frankfort Ave.
899-9904
http://www.varanese.com
Robin Garr's rating: 88 points