A leading lady in the Cajun music and food scene is serving up a tasty and tuneful treat with the launch of her new book in Dundee and Fife this week.
Sarah Savoy, daughter of legendary Cajun musicians Mark and Ann Savoy, has written a cookbook called The Savoy Kitchen, A Family History of Cajun Food.
Part-cookbook, part-memoir, it is based on her childhood memories around the kitchen table at her home in Louisiana and learning recipes from her grandmother and father.
Her dad Mark invented the Cajun accordion known as the acadian and their large family would gather at weekends, where traditional swamp food was served up and homespun music played and sung.
As an accomplished touring musician herself with her band Sarah Savoy and the Francadians, she regularly comes over from her home in France to play shows in England.
This is her first trip to Scotland, though and Sarah is set to delight audiences at two events in Dundee and St Andrews and Dundee.
She will host a six-course Cajun dinner for the local Dining Society at Forgan’s in St Andrews on Wednesday and then do the same at Waterstones in Dundee the following night, on Halloween.
“The first time I ever went on stage was when I played with my parents at the age of 12,” she said. “They were very encouraging but they didn’t try to push me.
“I never planned to make a living as a musician. I wanted to go into business. I wanted to get away from Cajun stuff just so I wasn’t riding on my mum and dad’s coat-tails.
“My mum and dad came over to France with my brother and a guy wanted to buy an accordion from my dad.
“He asked me to come and play with him and as I was the only Cajun in France, I was able to do my own thing and approach it with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude.
“The kitchen was the hub of the action in the house and the music was happening at the same time as the food. I’m a total foodie so writing the book was the natural thing to do.”
The Scottish tour has been organised by Sarah’s Dundee-based publisher, Emily Dewhurst, who runs the appropriately-named Kitchen Press. Copies of the book, priced £15.99, will be available at the events.