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Jim Michaud in his booth at a recent market.

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Maurice's own Michaud: King of the Kettle Corn

As soon as Jim Michaud tasted kettle corn, popcorn’s sweeter cousin, he became inspired to pop up his own business, Bayou Kettle Corn, in Maurice, and he has enjoyed sharing this sweet and salty snack with customers.
“I wanted to do something that would be interesting and family-oriented,” said Michaud. “I visited New Orleans and my wife and I had eaten kettle corn there without even knowing what kettle corn was. When I tasted it, I really liked it, so I started looking into it and decided that it was something that I think I would enjoy doing, so here I am.”
He started the business in 2011 and it has been picking up ever since. For those who are not sure what kettle corn is, it is popcorn with both refined sugar and salt added, giving it that identifiable taste. It is mostly cooked in, as the name suggests, cast-iron kettles, though there have been other modern methods to making it, such as using pans. Michaud takes the traditional route when making his.
“Kettle corn has the combination of sweet and salty tastes all in one,” he explained. “It is definitely different popcorn because popcorn is strictly salty. We do it in a 160-quart kettle and we cook it fresh by hand,” he explained. “Every batch is a fresh batch of hand-cooked kettle corn, so every bag you get is a fresh bag.”
Usually, Michaud can be found selling his fresh product at different events and festivals throughout the area. They are also sold at farmer’s markets also throughout the southern part of the state.
“We do different events. We can be found in the Abbeville Farmer’s Market,” he said. We participate in the Erath Farmer’s Market and the Delcambre Farmer’s Market. We do other events such as Relay For Life and the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival. We also do Easter events and fundraisers.”
This venture is sort of a side project for him, but he greatly enjoys it as well as the fact that others seem to enjoy it too.
“We have had a very positive response from it,” Michaud said, “and I enjoy doing it because it is very family-oriented and the product is really something I enjoy, so it’s the combination of cooking it and enjoying the product.”

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