‘Heaven just got a little spicier’: Springfield mourns Chef Wayne Hooker of Big Mamou Cajun food fame
SPRINGFIELD — Chef Wayne Hooker ran Big Mamou restaurants for 30 years and fans remembered him Tuesday for more than just his gumbo and jambalaya.
"Chef Wayne was not only a great chef and restaurateur, but a huge personality and big promoter of our City of Springfield," Mayor Domenic J. Sarno wrote in a statement as news of Hooker's death spread. "Heaven just got a little bit spicier with that excellent cuisine that he brings up there now. May God rest his soul!"
Hooker was about 70 years old.
Springfield, 1/29/02, Chef Wayne Hooker with a plate of crayfish balls in front of his restaurant Chef Wayne's Big Mamou. (The Republican, file)
He opened Big Mamou at 63 Liberty St. in 1996, drawing big crowds for Cajun food in a tiny 26-seat restaurant.
He started selling bottled sauces. He branched out in other ways over the years, for a time running a restaurant in Williamsburg starting in 2008.
In 2019 he opened a big Mamou Cajun on the Go, a lunch-and-dinner kiosk outside Mardi Gras which has also since closed.
This summer, Ivan Felix, the former chef at Chef Wayne's Big Mamou , opened a new restaurant called Mamou at 272-278 Worthington St. to carry on the tradition.
"(Hooker) has definitely left his mark through his culinary exploits, and his legacy will live on with the new Mamou Restaurant," Sarno wrote. "which Carla and I were just there Saturday, November 1st with family."
Attorney Raipher D. Pellegrino said he was fortunate to be able to do business with Hooker.
"And more importantly, call him my friend," Pellegrino said in an interview. "He had resilience. He had a passion for food. For people. For entertaining. He just had this innate ability to control a room, to make it so people will feel welcome."
The new restaurant opened in June and is doing well, Pellegrino said.
It's closed Tuesday and Wednesday to give the staff time.
When reached by phone Tuesday, staffers at the new restaurant asked for time to process the news.
Tributes poured on to social media, with a lot of people remembering how Hooker would always greet them, compliment their outfit.
You need a big personality to make it in the restaurant business, said Nadim Kashouh, owner of Nadim's Downtown. "And a thick skin," Kashouh added.
And good food.
"It was the authenticity of it," Kashouh said." It came from the South and I believe it came from the heart."
Stories by Jim Kinney
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