Blue Runner beans became more than a product – they slipped into the fabric of Louisiana home cooking. In New Orleans and along the river parishes, Monday is red beans and rice day. Over time, Blue Runner’s name has also become just as familiar in a southern pantry for its jambalaya and gumbo base as it is for its red beans. Blue Runner Beans has become an heirloom brand in Louisiana’s culinary tapestry.
On the banks of the Mississippi in Union, Louisiana, a young farmer-turned-entrepreneur lit a cooking fire behind his home more than a century ago. In 1918, 21-year-old Pierre Chauvin opened what was then called the Union Canning Company, using his backyard to can local figs, berries, and syrup. Not long after, Chauvin began testing his family’s recipes like the sweet and smoky bean stew that was taught to him by his grandmother. That modest backyard cannery would grow far beyond Union, but Chauvin’s early days – canning produce and slow-cooking grandma’s red bean recipe over an open flame – set the roots of a Louisiana legend.
As the business prospered, Chauvin brought in a partner, Clay Englade, and in 1946 the plant moved to Gonzales in Ascension Parish and was renamed Gonzales Products Co. There Chauvin introduced his first Creole cream-style navy beans (1950) and then the now-famous red beans, cooking them slowly with ham hocks exactly as he’d learned at home. The pots in Gonzales soon brimmed with award-winning beans: at parish fairs, the cans of Chauvin’s recipe collected first-place “blue ribbons.” The company even promoted a “Blue Ribbon Creole Cream Style Red Beans” label in honor of those wins. Eventually, the ribbon-inspired name stuck: the business itself was rechristened Blue Runner Foods – a nod to the blue-ribbon medals (whose long decorative threads are called “runners”) that had distinguished its signature beans. Decades later, the brand finally took on this name officially when Baton Rouge businessman Richard Thomas bought the Gonzales cannery in 1993 and rebranded it Blue Runner Foods. Thomas continued expanding the line (into soups and Cajun bases) but never changed the slow-simmered, family-style approach Chauvin began.
The Monday Red Beans
Blue Runner beans became more than a product – they slipped into the fabric of Louisiana home cooking. In New Orleans and along the river parishes, Monday is Red Beans and Rice Day: a ritual leftover from the laundry-day tradition. Women would toss the pot on the stove before sunrise and let it simmer quietly all day with whatever ham bone was left from Sunday dinner. In that world, a reliable can of beans could become a timesaver. Blue Runner’s slow-cooked red beans quickly earned a place on local shelves, offering the familiar savory comfort of a homemade pot of beans in a can. Generations of cooks still reach for that big blue can on Monday mornings to keep the red beans ritual alive. Over time, Blue Runner’s name became as familiar in a southern pantry as jambalaya and gumbo – an heirloom brand in Louisiana’s culinary tapestry.
A Family Legacy
Through all these years, the people behind Blue Runner remained rooted in the community. Pierre Chauvin never forgot his roots; even today the plant honors his methods. The Gonzales cannery still “cooks [the] beans in kettles instead of in the can,” just as Chauvin did to preserve that homemade creaminess. The kettle is a small but telling symbol: every batch is slow-simmered over hours, not hurried, to capture the deep flavor of those earliest recipes. And the story spans generations. Richard Thomas – who bought the factory in 1993 – led Blue Runner for more than three decades, steering the company while preserving its family feel. (In fact, a 2023 press release noted Blue Runner as a 105‑year‑old Louisiana cannery.) In 2023, Katie Bautsch, who became the first woman president of the company, took over leadership.
Every bean and every can still carries a bit of that old kitchen, just as Chauvin promised – proof that even a simple stew of beans and rice can be a long-lived family tradition no matter where you are in the country.
How Do You Red Bean?
“I’ll use canned beans, usually a combination of Blue Runner Creole Cream style and Blue Runner red creamy beans.” – Marcelle Bienvenu, Queen of Cajun Cooking
“I love Blue Runner canned beans when we’re on the go. It’s always in the pantry, and the sausage is always in the freezer.” – Kit Wohl, cookbook author.
“If I do use canned beans, I always get Blue Runner.” – Professor Carl Nivale, Mardi Gras Historian
“On days when I’m feeling more like a can instead, then I get Blue Runner’s Creole Mirepoix red beans. For the rice, I always get Jazzmen Rice’s brand of white jasmine rice.” – Burke Bischoff, Executive Editor of Where Y’at magazine.
Where do you find Blue Runner Red Beans?
If you’ve never cooked with Blue Runner beans before, you’re in for a treat! Try them in your next pot of red beans and rice. You can see if they’re available near you here: https://bluerunnerfoods.com/store-locator/
Blue Runner Brand Recipes:
What are your memories of using Blue Runner brand products? Please let me know in the comments below.
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Eric Olsson is the food blogger of RedBeansAndEric.com. He publishes new recipes and interviews weekly. He has developed recipes and written articles for the famous Camellia brand in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been mentioned in Louisiana Cookin‘ magazine and has had recipes featured in Taste of Home magazine – with his Creole Turkey recipe being runner up in their annual Thanksgiving recipe contest. He lives outside of Detroit, Michigan, with his wife and four children.
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