Our Story
Kajun Kettle Foods is a food processor servicing the broad line foodservice, custom foodservice, industrial ingredient, and co-pack markets nationwide. Our production facility is located in the Greater New Orleans area.
Drawing on the rich culinary culture of New Orleans, we began building our reputation with ready-to serve fresh pastas and sauces, including our famous Crawfish Monica®, a New Orleans Jazz Fest favorite.
Through twenty five years of innovations and expansion, our savory, authentic New Orleans and Italian-style sauces, soups, entrees and side dishes have earned the trust and admiration of chefs, restaurants and foodservice operators nationwide.
Most recently, our Arom-Max™ line of delectable stock concentrates, sauces and Demi-Glace have added the classic taste of France to our offerings.
From customizing flavors for your signature dishes to producing finished, ready-to-use products, we will fulfill your R&D and production needs with your requirements in mind. Explore our site and see what we can do for you.
What's New at Kajun Kettle?A Perfect Christmas Thought - Crawfish Monica® !
Create a truly festive holiday table this year with our own New Orleans icon – Crawfish Monica®.
Or, eating out with family or friends? Crawfish Monica® is a perfect “Thank You” Gift to share with those you love.
Crawfish Monica® Is Now In A Supermarket Near You !
Crawfish Monica® is available year ‘round in Rouses and other fine New Orleans and Gulf Coast-area supermarkets, along with her two sister sidekicks:
Monica’s Herbed Shrimp Alfredo & Pasta, graced with delicate shrimp and a rich creamy Alfredo sauce.
Monica’s Sauce with Chicken, Andouille, Tasso & Pasta, Cajun Cream Sauce Monica® lends a complimentary flavor profile to the freshest chicken, tasty andouille and seasoned tasso.
• All are packed in convenient dishwasher safe and microwavable bowls.
• Fully cooked Rotini pasta is included in each entrée.
• Each entrée serves 5 – 7 people, depending on portion size.
• And, best of all – besides the great taste – it takes all of 10 minutes to heat and serve.
Crawfish Monica® History
For more than 25 years Crawfish Monica® has been celebrated as a New Orleans classic at the Jazz & Heritage Festival. The dish was created by Chef Pierre Hilzim and named it for his wife and business partner, Monica Davidson.
Thousands of culinary fans have asked Chef Pierre and Monica to make the dish available year ‘round. In doing so, Chef Pierre created a line of entrées for hundreds of restaurants nationwide, naming them in honor of his wife, Monica.
The entrées were inspired by Chef Pierre’s dedication to culinary excellence and the thrill of bringing pleasure to people with great tasting food.
READ ABOUT FUN FACTS OF CRAWFISH MONICA® AND THE JAZZ FEST.
FUN FACTS ABOUT CRAWFISH MONICA®
DID YOU KNOW…
• There really is a Monica! Crawfish Monica® is named for Kajun Kettle Foods vice president, Monica S. Davidson, wife of Kajun Kettle Foods president and Crawfish Monica® creator, Pierre Hilzim!
• Over the past 24 years about 75,000 pounds of crawfish have been used to make Crawfish Monica®!
• 18,000 gallons of delicious Cajun Cream sauce have been used over the past 24 years to prepare Crawfish Monica®! Enough to fill a small bayou!
• It takes about 6,500 pounds of premium rotini to produce enough Crawfish Monica for just one year of Jazz Fest!
• In the past 24 years over 3,500 dedicated and fun-loving people have worked the Crawfish Monica® booth at Jazz Fest!
• Kajun Kettle Foods is housed in an 86,000 square foot building--a former Pillsbury plant!
• Over 600,000 bowls (large and small) of Crawfish Monica have been served over the past 24 years!
• Several famous people have tasted and loved Crawfish Monica® including: Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan, Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, Chelsea Clinton (at the Presidential Inauguration - Reunion on the Mall, where people representing food from all 50 states were in Washington, D.C.), Director Francis Ford Coppola, Singer/Performers Banu Gibson, Cowboy Mouth, Paul Simon, James Taylor, local music legend Allen Toussaint, actor and New Orleans resident John Goodman, most artists attending and playing at Jazz Fest, Ron Bozman (Producer of Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Failure to Launch), Bryant Gumbel, and many, many others!
• Over the past 24 years, the chefs and staff at Kajun Kettle Foods have put in over 3,500 hours preparing Crawfish Monica® for Jazz Fest!
• If you lined up all the servings of Crawfish Monica® that have been served over the years, it would stretch from New Orleans to Chicago!
- Posted December 10, 2009
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DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!
Coming to a store near you! -- in the New Orleans area and the Gulf Coast. . .
(33) Rouses Stores, Dorignacs, Zuppardo, Robert’s, Breaux Marts, Mathernes (LaPlace), Langenstein (Met Rd), Canseco's, Acquistapace's Covington Supermarket, and Ralph's Supermarkets (Gonzales and Baton Rouge).
Look for our whimsical labels, introducing Crawfish Monica® and two other delicious Monica Heat & Serve entrées:
Monica’s Herbed Shrimp Alfredo & Pasta and
Monica’s Sauce with Chicken, Andouille, Tasso & Pasta
All are packed in convenient dishwasher safe and microwavable bowls.
Fully cooked Rotini pasta is included in each entrée.
Each entrée serves 5 – 7 people, depending on portion size.
And, best of all – besides the great taste – it takes all of 10 minutes to heat and serve.
See heating instructions link. Heating Link
- Posted May 28, 2009
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Crawfish Monica Makes Groceries!
The real Crawfish Monica®, made famous at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, will now be available for you to take home and serve to your family and friends all year ‘round. Kajun Kettle is celebrating their best Fest ever, 2009, by offering their most famous dish to the public 27 years after introducing it at the Fest.
“It’s a great way to celebrate this 27- year milestone – for years, we’ve had thousands of people wanting the dish the other 358 days of the year. Now you can enjoy Crawfish Monica® before, during, and after Jazz Fest! People of all ages, from all over the world, just love it!”, says Monica Davidson.
The heat‘n serve delicacy will be available in the seafood departments at all Rouse’s Supermarkets by May 29th, as well as other fine Grocers. It comes conveniently packed in a 46 oz microwavable, dishwasher-safe container; a 28 oz mixture of the fabulous Crawfish Monica® Sauce with delectable Crawfish tails, and 18 oz of fully cooked Rotini Pasta. It’s delicious and easy to prepare. You can stock it in your freezer for everyday meals. One container feeds 5 – 7 hungry people, depending on portion size.
The Crawfish Monica® sauce w/ crawfish is paired with the same fully cooked pasta that is served at the Fest. It is a high quality rotini which is heated directly in the sauce- once the sauce and pasta are hot, it is ready. You don’t need to boil water or cook it al dente or use extra pots. Best of all, it tastes great.
Kajun Kettle Foods, the manufacturing home of Crawfish Monica®, will also offer:
1) Monica’s Herbed Shrimp Alfredo with Pasta and 2) Monica’s Sauce with Chicken, Andouille & Tasso with Pasta.
“We have a large following of customers who love Shrimp and other customers who prefer the sauce with chicken, for example,” says Chef Pierre Hilzim. “We also will be introducing other retail versions of our exciting meals later this year.”
“This is the whole package: superior quality, easy to prepare, and available right in your favorite store. Go make Groceries with Monica !!”
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- Posted May 21, 2009
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