Louisiana Proud

I often talk about Louisiana's rich culture and heritage. Our culture runs deep and when Louisianians have to leave our state—for any reason—they miss the special Louisiana life.

Joshua Ledet, a Season 11 American Idol contestant from Westlake, La., is experiencing that void now. A couple of weeks ago, in front of Idol’s national television audience Joshua expressed to judge Randy Jackson—another native Louisianian—how much he missed Louisiana food, especially boiled crawfish.

We heard his call and last night, with the help of the Louisiana Seadfood Promotion and Marketing Board, Randol's Seafood Restaurant and American Idol producers, we surprised Joshua with 60 pounds of fresh Louisiana boiled crawfish. Joshua was excited and gave the Idol audience a quick lesson on how to peel a crawfish. Ryan Seacrest was also thrilled by the delivery; he quickly peeled a crawfish and ate it on camera.

Joshua had his best performance to date—Jennifer Lopez calling it the best performance she has ever seen on American Idol. We don’t want to take all the credit but we are sure the crawfish helped send his performance to the next level.

The crawfish delivery was just a small example of southern hospitality to show Joshua we are rooting for him from home and want him to be this season’s American Idol. Check out the video to see the crawfish delivery and Joshua’s incredible performance.