The World Championship Gumbo Cookoff kicked off Saturday with the Meanest Beans and Cajun Creole Foodfest, bringing thousands to downtown New Iberia to sample food from dozens of vendors.

The annual cookoff is one of Iberia Parish’s most successful festivals each year, and draws in people from all over the country to sample authentic south Louisiana cuisine.

Saturday at the festival was devoted to all things non-gumbo, from red beans and red to potatoes and jambalaya.

Thomas Falgout, CEO and director of the Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce which puts on the event, said the first day of the two-day cookoff met all expectations.

“We’re tired but it’s been going very well,” Falgout said with a laugh Saturday afternoon.

A youth gumbo cookoff was also part of Saturday’s festivities, with young people from participating teams taking the reigns and showing their recipes to the judges evaluating food from each of the categories.

The event attracted many people from out of the area including Cindy Boudreaux, a Shreveport resident, who said she was in town to visit family and enjoy the weekend. 

Boudreaux, who was at the Steamboat Warehouse Pavilion where live music was playing, said she came down not only for the food but the music and cultural elements of the cookoff as well. 

“We got here Thursday, the food has been great and we love the music,” Boudreaux said. 

The cookoff has not only been a surefire way to explore local Cajun and Creole cuisine, but also functions as a major economic boost to Iberia Parish. Falgout said in September that the event generates close to $1.8 million for the local economy when all is said and done. 

“Hotels, restaurants, we promote outside of a 50-mile radius to draw people here,” he said. 

The cookoff also comes at the tail end of the Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival, also held in Iberia Parish, which occurs in the fall and promotes the sugar industry with a litany of parades, bands and fais-do-dos. 

The World Championship Gumbo Cookoff continues today with the gumbo competition. Dishes will begin to be served at 11 a.m. An awards ceremony announcing the winning teams of this year’s cookoff will take place in the afternoon.

Categories include Amateur chicken and sausage, Amateur seafood, Amateur Mélange, Professional seafood, and Professional non-seafood.

More than 75 teams have signed up for this year’s event, and the day will see both professional and non-professional groups set up in Bouligny Plaza to cook their best meal. 

Judges for the competition have a thorough system for deciding the best dishes for each category, including the judges having no knowledge of which team the dish they taste belongs to.