The MEDINA LAKE CAJUN FESTIVAL originated in 1980 as the GREAT GUMBO COOK-OFF, and the gumbo cook-off remains a tremendous attraction to the festival.
Visitors can sample a wide variety of gumbos prepared by amateur, professional AND CULUNARY cooks from Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere. Come early for the best selection. (Some of the gumbo cooks run out early!)
The different entries are judged privately by expert people from Louisiana who actually know gumbo (no media or political celebrities), and awards are presented to the top winners in allcategories as well as the showmanship category. (So expect some foolish and outrageous behavior among the participants.)

Click HERE to get the Rules & Registration Entry Form - (Right click to download)

What is Gumbo?
Gumbo is the dish most associated with the Cajun people. It can be described as a soup or stew with a roux base.
Roux is flour and oil cooked to a golden brown. It can take a long time to cook and is usually cooked in an iron skillet to evenly distribute the heat. Many kinds of meat can used in gumbo. Seafood is a big favorite including shrimp, crab, scallops and oysters. Crawfish, sausage, chicken, turkey, quail and other meats are also used. Vegetables such as peppers, celery, onion and garlic can be added to gumbo. Okra is also used by some gumbo cooks. A flavorful stock is the final ingredient.

Trying Gumbo
The cooks will be located in an Oak Tree area by the Gazebo Stage. With the food tickets you buy at the ticket booth, you give either three or four tickets to a gumbo cook and they will give you a sample of their gumbo. "Regular" gumbo is three tickets. "Seafood" gumbo is four tickets. Seafood ingredients cost more, hence the higher price.
If you try all the gumbos, you will probably have a full stomach. So to choose between the many possibilities, some people ask the gumbo cooks what's in their gumbo and how they make it. Also, gumbo cooks who have won before usually bring out their trophies. Those factors might give you a clue about how to narrow down your choices of which gumbos to try. But don't forget those cooks who have come for the first time, sometimes they'll have the best!

Do You Want to Enter the Great Gumbo Cook-off?
If you would like to compete, the entry fee is $40, at least 15 gallons of gumbo, and the cooked rice to go with it. Call (830)751-3130 to enter.
There are two categories: professional and amateur.
Professionals are gumbo cooks that have a restaurant, work in one, or do catering and the like. This includes people who make their living in food service. Amateurs are everyone else, except for culunary high scholl and college.
The gumbo can be cooked ahead of time and heated up at the festival. You need to provide the cooked rice to go with the gumbo. The committee will provide cups, spoons, sanitary gloves and napkins.
If you use seafood, you can charge $2.50 a cup (five tickets). If you don't, the price is $2.00 a cup (four tickets). You will be given a collection can for the customers to place their food tickets in. You will be paid 70% of the value of the tickets based on the number of tickets you collect. The rest of the proceeds will be used to help fund the work of the sponsoring organization, the non-profit Medina Lake Betterment Association.

Trophies are:

  • First Place Professional & Culunary
  • Second Place Professional & Culunary
  • First Place Amateur
  • Second Place Amateur
  • Third Place Amateur
  • Showmanship

So you want to be a gumbo cook?

Gumbo is one of those dishes that requires experience as much as anything. Some dishes can be perfect the first time you make them. Gumbo is really not one of those. So unless your mother is from the swamps of Louisiana and can teach you, you could try the following:

  • Visit the gumbo cook-off at the festival and talk to any cook.
  • Try different gumbos.
  • The festival sells a cookbook for $7 that contains at least two gumbo recipes.
  • Ask the cooks what they put in their gumbo. They will almost always tell you. They might keep one secret to themselves, but if you talk to enough cooks, you'll receive plenty of secrets by consensus.
  • Determine what gumbo you like best and ask that cook the most questions. You're not going to make good gumbo unless you like what you cook.
  • Experiment at home.
  • Serve to your friends. See what they think.
  • Enter the cook-off when ready!

    Click HERE to get the Rules & Registration Entry Form - (Right click to download)