What is the difference between Creole and cajun seasoning?

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The only seasoning mix my family ever uses is copious amounts of Tony Chachere’s. Tony Chachere’s calls itself Creole seasoning. We don’t really know what’s in Tony’s, but whatever is in it, that’s Cajun seasoning. Little bit of cayenne, little bit of celery salt, little bit of onion powder, bit of garlic powder. Probably touches of paprika.

The differences between Cajun and creole cuisine mostly boil down to ingredients. There are Cajun recipes for most creole dishes you know and love, but they’re typically much much simpler. Cajuns obsess over minutiae like when to put in the rice, exactly what proportions to use, whether it’s hot or cold when you do it, how you add meat to a pan. Stuff like that.

Because you don’t have any wiggle room on ingredients in Cajun dishes, rice dressing has ground beef, ground pork, chicken livers, onions, green peppers, Tonys, beef or mushroom gravy, oil and rice. Maybe green onion tops over the finished dish. You can’t go messing around with the recipe because it just won’t be the same. It won’t have that richness, or depth of flavor, or textures. It takes a few tries to get it just right.

Creoles chefs just put whatever in their dishes and so long as it tastes good, well you did a good job. Cajuns are obsessive and particular.