In '71 or '72 I returned to New Orleans and stayed there. I started cooking Louisiana food. Of all the things I had cooked, it was the best-and it was my heritage.

Prudhomme has been credited with popularising cajun cuisine and in particular blackened redfish during the 1980s and has been credited with introducing the turducken. It was thought to have been a falling bullet. In order to lose weight he wrote his 1993 cookbook Chef Paul Prudhomme's Fork in the Road which he deliberately avoided marketing as a low fat cookbook in order to prevent customers from being put off by the premise after testing the recipes at K-Paul's Kitchen in New Orleans.

He has lent his name to a number of products including hot sauce and seasoning mixes and has written a number of cookbooks. He is the chef proprietor of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans and has previously owned and run several other restaurants.