Who’s your crawdaddy?

Starting in the 1750s, the Acadians in the Louisiana bayou learned from Native Americans who used rods baited with deer meat to catch tiny, lobster-looking crustaceans. Today, crawfish is a $120 million industry and synonymous with Cajun cooking. If you’re curious about the fuss, visiting chef Austin Kirzner returns for his second year of hosting a crawfish boil at the Old Sugar Mill (35265 Willow Avenue) on Saturday, June 17, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., scored by Sacramento’s City of Trees Brass Band. For a $20 ticket, the chef will show participants how to select and prepare seafood and how to craft their own New Orleans “magic” spices, before he conducts a classic shrimp and crawfish boil, rounded out with local produce. And rest assured, he’s an authority on the matter. Born in New Orleans, Kirzner learned one-pot cooking from his grandmother and is now the executive chef of the French Quarter’s esteemed Red Fish Grill.