There is a common misunderstanding outside of south Louisiana that Cajun food is hot and spicy. An authentic Cajun dish will usually have a bit of a "bite" but will not be as fiery as most think.  The Cajun chef does not seek to over power the dish with simple heat — this is simply done by adding additonal pepper sauce by the user.  Cayenne pepper is the predominant choice of heat during preparation, though ground black pepper, and to a lesser extent white pepper, are used as well.

Cajun dishes prepared outside of Louisiana are often hotter and more heavily seasoned than their Louisiana counterparts, missing the flavor of the original dishes, andouille sausage receives the pepper treatment elsewhere. This is partially a result of the "Cajun" foods craze of the 1980s, when Cajun-style seasoning was popularized by chef Paul Prudhomme's creation of the very spicy dish called Blackened Redfish at his New Orleans restaurant "K-Paul's". It is also a result of recent "extreme" food fads, where many items are hotter than the originals.