Justin Wilson, 87; Cajun Storyteller and TV Chef

Justin Wilson, the Cajun humorist and chef whose distinctive accent delighted viewers of his “Cookin’ Cajun” and other TV shows, has died. He was 87.

His daughter Sarah Sue Easterly said Wilson died Wednesday in Baton Rouge.

Over Wilson’s career, he released five cookbooks and recorded 27 spoken-word albums of stories and an album of Christmas songs. He was host of several cooking programs, including “Louisiana Cookin’.”

He was utterly unpretentious, and refused to let mistakes be edited out of his shows or to let canned laughter be added, said Carl Fry, who produced all of his Louisiana Public Broadcasting shows.

“He would say, ‘I’ll tell a joke. If they like it, they like it,’ ” Fry said.

He referred to himself as JOOS-tain and became known for the expression: “I ga-ron-tee!” (guarantee), from the Cajun “J’vous garantis.”

“Cajun cooking is the ability to take what you have and create a good dish and season it right,” Wilson told The Associated Press in 1990.

“It isn’t all that hard, but so few people know how to take what they have and put it together and season it properly,” he said. “It’s creative cooking--that’s all it is.

“I am a gourmet, but I am more of a gourmand,” he explained. “A gourmet is somebody that’s an epicurean. But a gourmand is somebody that’s a P-I-G hog, and that’s what I am.”

A native of Amite, La., Wilson had lived in Summit, Miss., for about six years, his daughter said.

His last syndicated series of shows was titled “Easy Cooking.”

Wilson called himself a “half-bleed” Cajun. His father was Louisiana’s commissioner of agriculture for 32 years, and his mother, Olivet, was Louisiana French. She taught him how to cook.

“She was a great improviser,” Wilson said. “She’d cook a dish and we’d go, ‘Mama, w’at’s this here, hanh?’ And she’d say, ‘Children, that’s a mus-go. It mus’ go down yo’ t’roat.’ ”

Besides Easterly, survivors include two other daughters, eight grandchildren, two stepgrandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.