Ordre National du Mérite Agricole in honor of his work with Cajun and Creole cuisines. His cookbook, Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, was published by William Morrow and Company in 1984. It was given a Culinary Classic Book Award in 1989 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Prudhomme has been credited with having popularized cajun cuisine and in particular blackened redfish during the 1980s. The popularity of the fish was such that commercial fishing of the species was restricted to prevent its extinction. Prudhomme was also credited with introducing the turducken into American cuisine. During a summer residence in New York City in 1985, Prudhomme's pop-up restaurant was reported to the Board of Health, which visited the restaurant and closed it before it opened, reporting 29 violations of the city's health code. Prudhomme ignored the order and opened the restaurant anyway, resulting in the Board of Health threatening him with jail time if he continued to operate the restaurant. The city's mayor Ed Koch appeared with Prudhomme at the restaurant to declare an end to what the media reported as the "gumbo war". The restaurant was quite successful during the five weeks it was open, with lines sometimes reaching four blocks long. Four years later, Prudhomme opened a permanent restaurant in New York City at 622 Broadway, which had queues of up to two hours. In 1992, he was charged with possession of a weapon while trying to board a plane at Baltimore–Washington International Airport after leaving a loaded revolver in his carry-on luggage. He later released a press statement saying that he had forgotten it was in the bag. He made a guest appearance at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, France, in October 1994. In 2004, he traveled to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, along with of food and seasonings to cook for the troops stationed there. Following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Prudhomme was forced to close his restaurant. During the restoration efforts, he cooked for free at a relief center for the military and residents staying in the French Quarter; at one point his team cooked over 6,000 meals in ten days. He reopened the restaurant during the following October; the premises were not extensively damaged by the storm. Bon Appétit awarded Prudhomme their Humanitarian Award in 2006 for his efforts following the hurricane. After his death in 2015, Prudhomme's personal library of nearly