The State Capitol was a couple degrees hotter Wednesday after the House Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs Committee passed a resolution to name St. Martinville the “Louisiana Pepper Capital of the World.”
House Concurrent Resolution 36, brought by Breaux Bridge Republican Rep. Mike Huval, would honor the city for its history in the spice industry. Hot sauce and Louisiana peppers have been a main economic driver in the community since Edmund and Louise Bulliard produced the first commercially sold cayenne pepper sauce in 1910, Huval said.
The Bulliard family continues the tradition with Cajun Chef Products, a hot sauce and Cajun food company founded in 1958. The city is also home to Peppers Unlimited of Louisiana, a hot sauce manufacturer founded by another branch of the Bulliard family in 1993.
Together, the two companies produce over 25 million gallons of pepper sauce and products each year, ship to 100 countries and employee over 250 residents in St. Martin Parish, according to Huval’s resolution.
The city’s pepper pride isn’t limited to the Bulliard family. For 26 years, the St. Martinville Kiwanis Club has honored the city’s spicy heritage with its annual Pepper Festival. The festival includes a pepper eating contest, features local Cajun and Zydeco music and names a pepper king and queen, Huval said.
Huval told The Advocate he’s very pleased this designation is finally coming to pass. He took up the bill after being approached by the St. Martinville City Council and St. Martinville Mayor Thomas Nelson.
“It makes you proud,” he said. “It’s like anywhere else — Gonzales has jambalaya, Ponchatoula has the strawberries, and Breaux Bridge has the crawfish. It gives you something to carry on your shoulders. You’re proud to be able to say that we’re the Pepper Capital of the World.”
Reps. John Berthelot, R-Gonzales, and Stephen Pugh, R-Ponchatoula, whose cities are the homes of the jambalaya and strawberry capitals respectively, gave St. Martinville their blessing on behalf of the two foodie capitals.
Rep. Joseph Bouie, D-New Orleans, joked that a title can’t be effectively conferred without a taste test.
“Without a sample, I don’t know if I can vote for this bill,” he said. Huval countered and said there’d be enough hot sauce to go around when the bill came to the House floor.
