Emeril Lagasse
Emeril Lagasse
Emeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. He is a regional James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine and his self-developed "New New Orleans" style. However, he is perhaps most notable for having appeared on a wide variety of cooking TV shows, including the long-running Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril. On those shows he pioneered several catchphrases he is associated with, including "Kick...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChef
Date of Birth15 October 1959
CityFall River, MA
CountryUnited States of America
I am committed to using only the finest and freshest products. People have come to expect that, and I will never let them down.
I'm a good listener. And you have to have people to be a good listener. I take that very seriously. And that helps me to do better television. I don't really watch myself, so it's not like I'm critiquing. I just don't do that. What I really get inspired from is the people.
I want to give people jobs, believe me, ... I want to get back there and rebuild and want to be a part of the community. My heart is with my staff.
I want people to know... the difference between Creole and Acadian cooking. As you can tell, I am passionate about the Louisiana that I love. I guess you could say I am restoring and preserving the past and sharing the future.
After talking to people all day long in the restaurant, which I love to do, I look forward to being quiet at home.
I am very fortunate that I have a large audience who watches my show, and who seem to love my show, and there's certainly a lot of people contact that comes from that. But that really hasn't changed what I still feel, or how I get up in the morning, or what motivates me to get to work.
I know this is a major catastrophe, but I work so far in advance. My things are planned, my people are planned, ... I don't know anyone out there who's been more rah-rah for the city of New Orleans in the last couple of weeks.
My Food Network shows, 'Emeril Live' and 'Essence of Emeril,' are not in production right now, but I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily leaving Food Network. I have a lot of television still in me. I enjoy teaching people, so it's just a matter of time before I do something new.
Radishes grow just about anywhere. People think, 'Oh it's just a radish.' But radishes are delicious, and people don't think of cooking them.
The premise of 'The Originals' are places that have been open 50, 60, 75, 100 years or longer that are still doing it right that maybe a lot of people, particularly the younger generations, have not even thought about.
I guess I feel that I was following my instincts, and at the same time being guided by the best. I became totally intrigued with Louisiana - the people, the food. It is a part of my life. Everything that has happened for me since moving here has just been icing on the cake.
I've never really had a problem with people.
The cool thing is that now that people have made this evolution where cooking is cool, people are doing it on weekends, they're doing their own challenges. It's back to cooking. And it's real cooking.
Food is very representative of a city's culture. In order to really get to know a place and the people, you've got to eat the food.