Q&A with Emeril LagasseThe chef, cookbook author and television legend talks gumbo, Julia Child and why it's easy for him to be green.
by
Kat Kinsman /
Photo by Casey Kelbaugh
If a couple of chefs hadn't taken note early in his career, Emeril Lagasse might have ended up beating the drums, rather than the New Orleans cuisine for which he's become legend. AOL Food sat down with the BAM! Man to talk about his famous catchphrase, key influences, his adopted hometown and just what made him change his tune about cooking.
Pick up an autographed copy of Emeril's latest book, Emeril at the Grill, hear what he thinks is the biggest mistake made by backyard grillers and try a few of his recipes after the interview.AOL Food: Who taught you how to love food?
Emeril: The first inspiration, no question, was my mom. I remember being about 7 or 8, coming home from school, standing on a chair and making a vegetable soup with her. Then we were able to sit around as a family and enjoy this vegetable soup.
When I was 10, after school, I started washing pots and pans in a local Portuguese bakery three to five days a week. The Portuguese bakers took a liking to me so they started teaching me about cupcakes and brownies and squares. I was baking bread, and I liked that. For the longest time, I thought I was going to be a baker.
I got a job in a city club at 14 or 15, washing dishes. Again, the chef took a liking to me and I started in the salad department. Then I was in garde manger and all of a sudden I was cooking on the line. One day I finally woke up and said, "You know what? I really love this. I don't like it; I really love it." It's a way I can express myself through food to make people happy, to really get people excited.
I went to a
culinary high school and gave up a full scholarship of music to pay to go to cooking school. So the drums are always beating in my head but to a different beat. It's usually celery or carrots or something like that.
AOL Food: So how many kids do you have and so they cook?
Emeril: I have four kids. Two older girls, both married and they cook. They love cooking, they have a great palate and they're really good cooks actually. And then I have two little kids, E.J. and Meryl, and E.J. cooks. Meryl's just not wanting to cook, but she's a good eater.
(Get the recipe for E.J.'s Ribs)AOL Food: How did you develop your cooking style?
Emeril: I learned from all various types of chefs and mentors over the years. Take a dish as simple as French onion soup -- you know everybody seems to have their own twist. Some people like beef stock, some a chicken stock, some a combination. Some people like thyme, others Swiss cheese or Fontina. Eventually the light bulb goes off in your head and you go, you know what, I have my own style now. This is going to be Emeril's way of making it. I'm going to have cracked black pepper and use sea salt and a combination of chicken and beef broth. I'm a traditionalist -- I am going to go with Swiss cheese and I'm going to have a toasted crouton not a raw crouton.
You start developing your own style. I'm classically trained, but I'm American schooled, and I've worked for a lot of crazy characters out there. I've worked for a German, I've worked for French, I've worked for Swiss -- so I think my style is universal.
AOL Food: What is the
Emeril Green initiative all about?
Emeril: In the early '80s, I moved to Louisiana and another light bulb went off. My French, Canadian, Portuguese background came out and then my spiritual feelings about being on a farm and the connection to the soil cames back, and I began to start another farm, raising products. I really want to control as much of the quality of ingredients for my customers as I can. So when people say to me now, "What do you mean you've got a green show? You've gone green?" It's like I've been green for 30 years, you know?
When I started raising produce and things like quail organically, people looked at me like it was kind of strange. I think that we have to treat the planet a lot better if we want the planet to be here for our kids and grandkids. Sustainability is very, very important.
AOL Food: What's your role in New Orleans been like since Hurricane Katrina?
Emeril: It was devastating. People lost a lot; some people lost it all. My first reach was to my employees and family and once we sort of had a handle on that, then we could focus on what the structural damage was internally in our company. We went from having almost 2,400 employees down to about 1,300 because some ZIP codes were just wiped out.
I think we're finally have gotten a step back in our walk in New Orleans, but the Gulf Coast of Mississippi is still in serious trouble. It needs a lot of development and population and businesses to come back. We opened a restaurant in Gulfport, Miss., called Emeril's Gulf Coast Fish House.
I think you have to believe. My belief was never not there. I'm very proud that
my foundation has sponsored over 100 summer programs last year for school kids so that they can do something and get off the street and learn. I'm very proud of what my family and my organization has done for the city of New Orleans.
AOL Food: What drew you, a Massachusetts native, to New Orleans cuisine?
Emeril: New Orleans is one of the greatest cities in the world for food. There's a lot of tradition -- between Creole, which is the city cooking, and Cajun or Acadiana, which is the country cooking. It's been there for over 200 years. You're not just going to go in there and get a paint brush and change things. There are lot of cultural influences that make up Louisiana besides the French, the Spanish and the African American. There's a little Italian, there's a little Irish -- it's really a great melting pot which is probably why we have the best gumbo on the planet.
My mom was Portuguese and my dad is French-Canadian, and my mom ruled the house so we grew up Portuguese. I'll never forget the day that I was going through the kitchen at Commander's Palace with Ella Brennan and she said to me, "What do you think about all this great food?" And I said, "It kind of reminds me of my mom's kitchen." That's how I really feel about it. I close my eyes and I then open them very quickly, I always still feel like I've always been a part of New Orleans.
I think I am a great ambassador of the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana because I've always been true to the cuisine. I've never gone left or right of that. I embrace it and can't wait to eat more of it.
AOL Food: How did Julia Child inspire you?
Emeril: Julia Child was a very special lady and a mentor to me. I grew up watching her television shows. I loved her "you know, I really don't give a crap" kind of attitude. If a piece of swordfish fell on the floor, well, a piece of swordfish fell on the floor -- that's reality. It's going to happen to Helen at home so why can't it happen to Julia?
It gave me a little inspiration for show that I did called "Emeril Live." Julia and I met several times and she became intrigued with my Louisiana style and asked me to be on her show. I did a show with her where we did a gigantic crawfish boil in the backyard and then I did another show where I showed her how to make etouffee. And, I kind of grinned about that because I grew up in New England.
AOL Food: With "Emeril Live," you were something of a trailblazer, moving away from the standard cooking-show format. How did that come about?
Emeril: I fought the system of stand and stir. And how many quarters of a cup can you see and how many tablespoons and teaspoons do you want to see? I'm very passionate and very serious about what I do, so I always knew that my recipes had to work, especially on the Internet or in publication, so of course that's not a joke to me. But again, for me, cooking is about passion. It's spiritual, it's in my heart, it's in my soul, it's in my blood. So maybe: "BAM!" Maybe
that will wake them up a little bit, maybe that'll get them stirring a little different.
It slowly built through the years of "Essence" and we had some incredible moments with that show. Then we created "Emeril Live" and of course with my music background, we didn't stir, we didn't stand -- we shaked and rattled and rolled. We ate and have a great time and it was a great 10 plus year run, so no regrets. As the guy says out there in California, "I'll be back."
Pick up an autographed copy of Emeril's latest book, Emeril at the Grill and hear what he thinks is the biggest mistake made by backyard grillers.
