Eat My Globe

Interview with Chef Emeril Lagasse

Simon Majumdar (“SM”):

This introduction is going to be for one of my genuine heroes. Whenever I go to New Orleans, I always make time to sit at the bar of this gentleman's signature restaurant, now run by his son, E.J. And I have a splendid meal, usually with a glass of memorable wine as well. He owns numerous restaurants, both in New Orleans and Las Vegas, as well as on cruise liners and others. He has now appeared in over two and a half thousand shows such as Emeril Live, Essence of Emeril, Eating the World of Emeril Lagasse, Top Chef, and Iron Chef, where I started my career. Working with a wide variety of channels such as the Food Network, Amazon, the Roku Channel and Bravo. He has also had numerous appearances with Rachel Ray, Good Morning America, and so many others. As well as restaurants and television, he has also written extraordinary books, again of which I have many. Emeril’s There's a Chef in My World, Emeril at the Grill, From Emeril's Kitchen, and many more. He's also been awarded many achievements such as the Distinguished Service Award from the Wine Spectator, Lifetime Achievement Award from South Beach Food and Wine Festival, and Humanitarian of the Year from James Beard Foundation for his amazing work, particularly during his time of work with the Emeril Foundation, which he started nearly 25 years ago with his wife Alden. But mainly, despite his culinary training at Johnson and Wales, and travels around the globe, he manages to make being in the kitchen fun for all those who are watching with his shouts of bam and kick it up a notch, and his well-natured approach to cookery that everyone could relate to.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the one and only Emeril Lagasse.

Hi, Emeril, how are you?

Emeril Lagasse (“EL”):

Hi Simon. Simon, I'm terrific. Thank you so much for having us.

SM:

Oh no, this is so great and like I said, you're one of my heroes. So, I just wanted to do this. Now, before we start, would you like to tell us about your events? What you've got going on in the future? I know we're going to talk about some of your past, but I want to know what you're going to be doing in the future.

EL:

Well, we started our concentration on trying to perfect Emeril’s, which we work on every day. I'm sort of just the coach because EJ has his team and, but I do work quite a bit with them and guide them a little bit. I'm very involved right now with Meril. Meril is our other restaurant here in New Orleans, just a couple of blocks away. Meril is named after my youngest daughter and Meril's inspiration is really sort of influences from when I did the show Eat the World.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

My travels around the world, this sort of inspired me with various cultures and various dishes, like, you know, not just a flatbread inspired from Italy, but, you know, turkey necks inspired from Louisiana, Korean short ribs, you know, from Korea. And so, we're currently working on a new Meril in Las Vegas at the M Hotel, which we're quite excited about, which will be probably opening in the fall. And we're also working on an Emeril’s Chop House at a casino in Baton Rouge. So, we're working on that. And then of course, I've been quite busy with Carnival Cruise Lines as the chief culinary officer and also. . .

SM:

Wow.

EL:

. . . planning some future restaurants on some future ships.

SM:

Wow, so not much to get on with.

EL:

Yeah. And then on top of that, Simon, I spent a lot of time, you know, doing things with the foundation and mentoring. . .

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

. . . people, et cetera, et cetera. But that's a, that's a whole ‘nother story.

SM:

Well, I'm going to ask you about that towards the end of this episode because I want to know about that and that's something that's very important to me as well. I work with a lot of charitable foundations as well. So, I want to ask you about a little bit of that. But before we go on to that, let's go back to your past because tell us about your childhood because I know that that was quite exciting for you as well.

EL:

Mm-hmm. Well, my mom is Portuguese. . .

SM:

Okay.

EL:

. . . and my dad was French-Canadian, but my mom ruled the house so we grew up very Portuguese in a predominantly Portuguese community in a small town in Massachusetts called Fall River. Also, kind of a nickname is they call it the Little Azores. But it was, you know, like I said, Portuguese driven. I played music when I was, you know, since a young boy and became interested after my mom influenced me when I was about seven years old. She taught me about making a vegetable soup. I just kind of fell in love with food. I went to a culinary high school before going to Johnson and Wales. I worked in several neighborhood restaurants from fine dining to a pizzeria. So just getting my taste of a little bit of everything. But always my focus was the Portuguese culture and predominant Portuguese dishes. My first job when I was 10 years old, I started washing pots and pans in a Portuguese bakery. And then when I was about 12, the owners took a liking to me and the old time bakers took a liking to me and started teaching me about pastry. First simple things like brownies and lemon squares and things like that. And then eventually getting into the Portuguese sweet bread and the Portuguese cornbread, et cetera, et cetera. So that was a very touching part of my childhood was music and of course baking. I really didn't know what the word Simon, what the word pastry chef was. It was, they were bakers. And, but it had a lot of influences on me.

SM:

Oh wow. And, just out of interest, what were the instruments you played? Because I don't know that side of you at all.

EL:

Yes, I was a percussion major.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

But I also played, I could play all instruments except for the piano and not very good at like the clarinet. I did play the sax. I could play the sax, the tuba, the trombone. I played trumpet.

SM:

Wow.

EL:

Yeah. I actually got recruited to my culinary high school, I actually got recruited because of my music qualities. So, they needed a conductor for the band. So, they contacted me in exchange for enrolling in the culinary program.

SM:

Wow, I didn't know that. That's fantastic. That really is fantastic. Well, I'm glad that you came to the culinary world, but I'm sure you have a lot of time when you can play the drums or doing whatever you're going to do.

When did you when did you actually go to Johnson and Wales? Because I've been there not to the library, in fact, many times and I go and study in the library. It's a little while now, but I spent time there and I've been shown the classes and everything. So that's been really fun for me. So, when did you go there?

EL:

I went to, I was one of the first classes. So, I went in ‘77, ‘78.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

And after Johnson and Wales, I took some, I worked for a hotel company called Dumfey Hotels. . .

SM:

Okay.

EL:

. . . that was owned by Aer Lingus and ended up being the sous chef at the Parker House in Boston.

SM:

Oh yeah, yeah, I know the Parker House.

EL:

And then, and then got promoted and took on a few chef jobs for them. That's when I met the Brennan's, the Brennan family.

SM:

Oh okay.

EL:

Yeah. And that was in early, early eighties, 1980 is when I met them. And in ‘82, they were beginning to start looking for another American chef to replace Paul Prudhomme, who was moving on to open K Paul's. . .

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

. . . with his Kay. And so, I began interviewing mostly with Ella for the position. And I got to tell you, Simon, it was the longest interview that I've ever had was probably took about six months because every week she would say, well, what are you doing next Thursday afternoon at say 2:30? And I said, I guess I'll be on the phone with you. And next Thursday would come and it would be 2:30 and I'd get on the phone and call her or she would call me. And she'd say, okay, today I'd like to talk about what you've been cooking the past week. What dishes have you been cooking? What have you been inspired doing in the past week with food? Or one interview would be, tell me about your love, your interest about wine, et cetera, et cetera. And this went on for months until finally she said, listen, I'd like you to come to New Orleans, and, but you've got to come for more than a day because I have a big family and I'd like you to meet as many of them as possible. So, I came to New Orleans. The airline lost my luggage. So, I, I showed up at commander's palace to meet Ella empty handed. I got out of the taxi. She was saying goodbye to some guests. And she turned around and said, you must be Emeril Lagasse. And I said, you must be Ella Brennan. And I know you're Ella Brennan. She said, come right this way. Let's have a drink. So, of course, you had to go to the kitchen at Commander's Palace to get to the bar. And we're going to the kitchen and she says, what do you think about all these great smells? And I said, smells just like my mom's kitchen. And we just really hit it off. I just, I left to get my stuff and moved to New Orleans in 1982 and took over Commander's Palace.

SM:

Which is just, I love Commander's Palace and I've been to New Orleans. That's my eating place in America.

EL:

Yeah.

SM:

That's the place that everywhere I go, even if you go to the French Quarter or you go to wherever and Northline and to all these amazing places.

But before I talk to you about New Orleans, I would like to ask you. Because I know you spent some time in France and I spent a lot of time in France, Paris, Lyon, but I do want to know how you felt about the way they kind of treated you in Paris at that time, that whole brigade system, the way they and whether they were, that's just how they were taught.

EL:

Correct.

SM:

And that's kind of what's grown up this time, particularly with the male members of the community, the chef community. And I just wanted to find out if that was the same with you.

EL:

It was not an easy task for me because A, I was Portuguese and most of the Portuguese people at the time in France, they were dishwashers. I didn't really speak the language very well. It was actually quite poor, actually. And they certainly at the time, and this is partially in the late ‘70s and a little bit in the early ‘80s. I shucked a lot of oysters and made a lot of sorbets and did a lot of cleaning. But it was a wonderful time of my life and a wonderful experience. I worked for Mr. Robuchon.

SM:

Oh okay.

EL:

So. And then I worked in Lyon for Pierre Orsi.

SM:

Which is just, I mean, working for those two chefs. And I've eaten at both, both their restaurants in Paris and in Lyon. I mean, those are great restaurants and that's amazing.

EL:

It was really funny, Simon, because a couple of years ago, my family, we went on a trip to St. Bart's, and there's a Robuchon in St. Bart's. And I was a big fan of the chef, still am, he's still in New York, the one in New York. But it was funny because I'm there with my family dining, and Mr. Robuchon's partner was sitting at the bar and he recognized me. All of these years later, and he came and spoke to me and my family and greeted us and the hospitality was incredible. And so, beside being a great chef, he also knew a lot about hospitality.

SM:

Well, that's the thing. Hospitality was something that Robuchon had. And it's something that you have as well. Whenever you come out or people see you, I know that you have that hospitality. The other thing I did want to mention, because I know E.J. spent some time at Core, which I love in London, and I spend a lot of time in London, obviously with my accent, I have my house in London as well. How was he at Core? Did he have a good time?

EL:

It was great. You know, before he went to Core, he also went to Johnson and Wales in Providence.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

And before he went to Core, he spent two summers with Eric Ripert at La Bernardin.

SM:

Oh.

EL:

So, he was born in New York and when he was 15, 16, he worked the summers for Chef Ripert at La Bernardin. So, he had a very great backbone, if you will.

SM:

Yep, he certainly do.

EL:

And so, you know, the chef, the CDC at Core contacted EJ because of Chef Ripert. And also, another colleague of mine was working for Claire. And so, EJ just immediately moved to London on his own, got his own place and worked at Core with Chef Claire, who's absolutely brilliant. One of my favorite restaurants in the world.

SM:

Yeah, absolutely. She's a...

EL:

And then she took a liking to him and the chef, and then she wanted him to stay on to become soon to be become one of her sous chefs. And he didn't want to make that time commitment. So, he went to work at Frantzén. . .

SM:

Mm-hmm.

EL:

. . . moved to Sweden, then he came back to London. And that's when dad stepped in and said, okay. . .

SM:

[Laughter]

EL:

. . . it's time to come home and we're going to do now what I've been wanting to do for 20 years. And he came back. We learned the ground of what was happening. We closed the restaurant for almost a year. We totally gutted the restaurant and renovated the restaurant. And as you know, now we went from 35 tables to 11 tables.

SM:

Yep.

EL:

And now having Emeril’s Wine Bar as well, which has been a lot of fun.

SM:

Wow, that's, I can't wait. And we haven't been for a little while because of pandemic and everything else and my work. And we're going this year as well. So, we're definitely going to go to Emeril’s because that's always, we always work there.

Now, let's move on to New Orleans because as so with me, it is the greatest eating city in the United States, bar none for me.

EL:

I would agree with you.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

I'm big fan of New York, I'm a big fan of LA, I'm a big fan of San Francisco.

SM:

Oh yeah.

EL:

But I have to tell you, dollar for dollar, people eat as good if not better than any place in America right here in New Orleans.

SM:

Oh yeah, and I will tell you so and I'll talk about this later on but I go to, you know, Willie Mae’s or then I go to Galatoir’s or I go to Commander's Palace or I go to Coops or I go to so many of these and they're from the very cheapest to the very expensive and everything is superb. Everything. Toup’s. I've been to so many in New Orleans.

But tell me about, you know, when you went there I know you started work at the Commander’s Palace, you know, is that what gave you your love for New Orleans? Is meeting with her and tell me about cooking at that place because that to me is one of the very – what's the word? – that is New Orleans.

EL:

Yeah. I took over, I had some big shoes to fill. I. . . .

SM:

Who did you take over from?

EL:

From. . . Well, Paul was just on the way out and there was a guiding chef there for a little bit called Gerhard Brühl was his name. And he was fading out and I took over the kitchen.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

And you know, it was, realized it was a great opportunity not only to learn about tradition and about such a great culinary world being at Commander's Palace, but also it was a great cultural experience being in the city of New Orleans and learning about the difference between Creole and Cajun or Acadian food. So.

SM:

That's what I was going to ask you because a lot of people, a lot of the listeners to this show won't actually know the difference between them because they assume they're the same but they're totally not.

EL:

Yeah. Well, you know, Creole is the city version of Louisiana cuisine and Acadian, which has been slang Cajun, is the country. . .

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

. . . version of Louisiana cooking.

SM:

Oh.

EL:

So, there are a few differences. You know, one uses tomato in gumbo or jambalaya. One doesn't use tomato in jambalaya, but they have. . . I want to say that the food is very powerful, not spicy, but very powerful, a lot of depth driven. There's a lot of soul to what it is. And then that's what makes New Orleans so special is that you can go to grandma's house or somebody's grandma's house and have the best red beans and rice that you can imagine or the best jambalaya or the best gumbo. And like you said, then you can go to Galatoir’s, you can go someplace like, like Toup’s and it's just the food is really solid.

SM:

Oh, it's so solid.

Now, OK, I'm going to ask you this question now about it, because if you had to crave one dish from New Orleans, most of all, just one dish, and you know, me, I, mine would be the garlic soup, at Bayona, which is just phenomenal. And in fact, when I go there, I usually order that three times and then I leave because there's plenty of others but that soup is just phenomenal. And the other one that I really love is the roast beef at Parkway Tavern, Parkside Tavern, sorry.

EL:

Yeah.

SM:

And so that's me. But I'd love to know how someone who knows New Orleans the way you do, if you had to choose one dish, what would it be?

EL:

Well, for me, I would have to say it would be gumbo for sure. And turtle soup would be like right behind it. You know, I'm a big fan of the turtle soup at Commander's, big fan of the turtle soup at Brennan's. We used to do a turtle soup on the menu when we had Delmonico here on St. Charles Avenue. We do it at Meril occasionally for as a special. Right now, this week, the soup that we're doing is a special at Meril. My mom's caldo verde. Portuguese kale soup. That's this week. But I would have to say that it would have to be gumbo. And not all gumbo's are alike, as you know.

SM:

Of course.

EL:

You can go place to place. I believe that it's really all about the roux. And I believe. . . .

SM:

Oh yeah.

EL:

Yeah, not only about the roux, but the matter of time that it cooks, needs a lot of love.

SM:

So, tell people what a roux is because sometimes again people are going to listen to this and go, well, what is it? How do they cook it?

EL:

Right.

SM:

Should it be of this color? Should it be of that color?

EL:

Yeah. Well, it's a great question. Roux is a thickening agent, used a lot in Louisiana cooking, but particularly with, with most gumbo's that are made. It's generally half flour and half oil, generally a vegetable oil, a neutral oil. You wouldn't want to use extra virgin. It would overpower it. And then it's a matter of the right temperature, so not too high, not too low, a good wooden spoon in a good pot.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

And it's a slow process. And I used to joke all the time saying, they would say, what is, how long is that? What's the process? And I would say, well, by the time you finish two beers, it should be very close.

SM:

[Laughter]

EL:

So, the thing is that it goes from peanut butter color, like a blonde to peanut butter color. But in Louisiana, I've never seen anybody except in Louisiana cuisine that cooks a roux as long as we do here in Louisiana. We get that really chocolate brown for those real rustic gumbos like chicken and sausage or duck and wild mushroom. It almost looks like a bar of chocolate, the color.

SM:

Oh. Wow and is it. . . it doesn't have much thickening when it gets to that color does it?

EL:

Well, because the flour breaks down.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

You know, the BTUs in the flour, the higher the heat, the more that it burns, the higher the heat, then the less viscosity that it holds. So, it begins to stop breaking down as it gets, you know, more and more heat applied to it.

SM:

Oh, that's just even you talking about it, the dark and the, oh, I'm starting to go, my mouth is just becoming watery and I don't . . . .

But tell me about how from there you went on to work at Food Network because you were there right at the beginning. I, I obviously I've done not as much as you, but I've done 350, 400 shows on there. And I just wanted to know how you got onto it. . .

EL:

Yes.

SM:

. . . and how you started to, I think Emeril Live was your first, wasn't it?

EL:

No, Essence of Emeril was my first.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

But I'll tell you this quick story. So, there was a production house in Nashville by the name of Reed Land Productions. It was a husband and wife team.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

And they called me and they said, listen, we want to know if you're interested in possibly doing some sort of cooking show because the president who started CNN, Reese Schoenfeld, is starting a 24-hour network about food. Long story short, went to Nashville, did a pilot, didn't really understand what that was, but I thought it was a person that flew an airplane.

SM:

[Laughter]

EL:

But anyhow, did a pilot, and I did a show called How to Boil Water. And I only did it because it, I said, it reminds me back of my childhood, beginning days of cooking. So, I was way overqualified for the show, but anyhow, they fired me. It was really a terrible show. And then they called me again and said, we want you to do another show called Emeril and Friends. And I was like, I'm not really a food critic. I'm a cook. I don't really want to critique restaurants. So, I may have to pass on that. Long story short, Reese Schoenfeld personally called me and he said, listen, come to New York. I want to have a meeting with you. I believe that you have so much ability to do a cooking show, you're a great cook, come and talk to us. I went to New York, we talked, we brainstormed the whole day, and it was another lady in the room with Reese and I, and that's when the Essence of Emeril became official, if you will. I shot 10 or 11 seasons of Essence of Emeril, 90 shows a year. . .

SM:

Wow.

EL:

. . . and you know, there was a time where was shooting, Simon, was shooting eight shows a day.

SM:

Wow.

EL:

If you can believe that. Yeah, because of my restaurant schedule, I couldn't drag it on. So we shot, I closed the restaurant Saturday night. I'd be on a plane at six in the morning. On Sunday morning, I'd get off the plane. I'd go to the studio. We'd shoot five shows Sunday afternoon. Eight shows on Monday, eight shows on Tuesday. Then I would fly back and go back into the restaurant.

SM:

Wow. Wow.

EL:

After a few years, that settled down a little bit. We only started doing four shows a day. But then it became, to me, it it was just something, time for a change. So, I told them that I was gonna quit. I was gonna just go back to my restaurants and run my restaurants and just, that was great, thank you very much. And they said, you can't do that. And I said, well, I'm telling you I'm doing that.

SM:

[Laughter]

EL:

And they said, no, you can't do that. What do you want to do? And I said, well, you know what? I watch these late night shows like Jay Leno and. . .

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

. . . you know, et cetera, et cetera, you know, nobody's done it with food. And I'd like to have a music component to it because of my music background. And I don't want to have actors and actresses that are coming on talking about the next movie they're going to come out with. I want to have chefs and I want to have restaurateurs. And I want to have musicians. And so, we did, we did two pilots for Emeril Live, one hour shows. I'll never forget. I was on vacation with my family, got in Hawaii, got back off the plane in New York. I did two pilots, one each day and away I went and they aired them and it went through the roof. So, they said, let's, why don't you do Emeril Live? So I did Emeril Live and did, God, I don't know how many Emeril Live shows that I did, but it was a lot of fun. But unfortunately, as things in life, Simon, as you know, as things happen, sometimes they grow too big. . .

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

. . . and sometimes they grow too expensive.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

And so, it come to a point in time that the network thought, okay, this has gotten too many people, and it's very expensive to produce so they sort of phased it out, phased me out and I didn't want to do they wanted me to do these competition shows and I just didn't wanna, I didn't wanna, that wasn't that wasn't my personality to be. . . we own and scream at people and I want to teach people how to cook. I want to teach people how to eat. How to drink wine. How to be educated about spirits. That's what I want to do. And so, their time at the moment, that's not what they were into. They were into this competitive stuff. And so, I took a break and I did a few other shows for, I did Emeril Green for a couple of years. And then I did, and then the opportunity came to do Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse for Amazon. Unfortunately. . . .

SM:

Yes, which I watched a lot.

EL:

Yeah, unfortunately Amazon really didn't know what they had.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

We won five Emmy Awards.

SM:

Yep.

EL:

And they didn't pick up the show. It was a great show, but whatever. And so again, I took another break. And then, just recently the last couple of years, I've shot two shows for Roku. I've started an Emeril Channel on Roku.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

So, they're also playing some of the old Emeril Live and old Essence of Emeril shows beside the two new shows that I shot for them. One was a tailgate show and one was about just cooking.

SM:

Which is just fantastic. I would like to ask you though, when you did Emeril Live, who were the musicians you had on? Because I'm not a musician of any kind, but I just love the music and I'm a fan of from the beginning kind of, of the beginning of, yeah, I'd love to know.

EL:

Yeah. So in the, in the, first, the first few shows, I had these two guys on, used to call them, was Bouille-a Bass and I forget what the other guy's name was, but anyhow, then it really just got serious. And then I found Doc Gibbs, who's a very talented, percussionist out of Philadelphia. And Doc and I put together this Emeril Live band, mostly guys from the, from the city in New York and, and Philadelphia, and we put this band together. And then we, couldn't, I couldn't tell you how many guest musicians that we had that would come and join the band for a song or two. I had from Willie Nelson to Sammy Hagar to Billy Joel to you name it. And then of course I would always incorporate, I incorporated educational pieces in every show because I wrote the shows with my team.

SM:

Yeah, and that's what I'd love to hear about.

EL:

Yeah, and we would write the show based on, we'd say, okay, well, people want to know about mushrooms or people want to know more about peas or they want to know more about lamb. So, we, the team and I would brainstorm and we would write a show based on that and feature product, show the product. But then we would always have a musical agenda. If not a musical guest, we would always have someone that would fit in with the show that was educational as a chef or restaurateur. And then there was no script. I had a 15 second dialogue and then only God knew where we were going.

SM:

That is just amazing. And I was going to say, you must have some crazy stories, but I think you've told me so many of them. It's just fantastic.

And I'd love for you to . . . I know this could be like giving up one of your children, but I'm not saying, but if you had to choose one of your favorite shows ever, what would you choose? Because for me, traveling, I thought traveling the world, you know, Emeril Traveling in the World is something that I wanted to do and all of that because I say I've been to nearly 100 countries and so that to me was one of my favorite shows that you do.

EL:

Yeah.

SM:

But you tell me what and like I said it's choosing one.

EL:

Well, of them that, yeah, one of them that comes to mind, I had her on a few times, but one that comes to mind is I did a show about hamburgers, about the classic American hamburger, how to make them, the right way to dress them, how to stack them. And I had Julia Child as a guest that came on to. . .

SM:

Wow.

EL:

. . . show the audience and the viewer her version of what the American hamburger was. And I got to tell you, that show was, a lot of fun.

SM:

Oh.

EL:

There were many from Charlie Trotter to Norman Van Aken. I could keep going on and on and on. And, you know, a lot of the music guests that would come on also had a very sincere passion about food.

SM:

Oh yeah.

EL:

Most of them. Most of them. Like, no one really knows that. Sammy Hager, and he's a really good cook, and he loves to cook, and we cook, we just cook together.

SM:

I, he's a, he's a good friend of Guy Fieri, who I work with and they've been friends and I only met Sammy once when I think when Guy had a star on the Hollywood Walk or whatever. Anyway, but he was really nice and they, they formed a tequila brand together and did all of this. So, I know that he's really, really interested in food. So how when you met him was that and all the people you met, again, these are times that we weren't working in.

EL:

Yeah, I met Sammy back when he was with Van Halen. So, we go way, way back.

SM:

Way back.

EL:

He came to the restaurant. Back then we had a food bar. He sat at the food bar with his wife. I don't even think they were married yet at the time, Kari.

SM:

Uh huh.

EL:

They came. He had such an amazing experience. He came back the next night and he said, listen, we're playing a show tonight and why don't you come? And I said, it's going to be a little hard for me to get out of here. I won't get out of here until, you know, much later. And he said, well, we don't go on until like 10 o'clock. So, he said, I'll have somebody pick you up. And he had somebody pick me up.

SM:

That's just...

EL:

And I went to the show and from that moment on, at the food bar, and then we became friends and our friendship just evolved  many years.

SM:

I love that. But now what I'd love to talk to you about, because I know this is something that's very, important to you, I'd love to know about your foundation and who you work with and who you work for. And then I'll talk to you about a few, what I call questions that I ask everybody who comes on. So, I asked Jacques Pépin, I asked Alton Brown, and I'll ask you those questions at the end because they're fun questions as well. But I'd love to know all the people you work for in this foundation because I think that's really, really important.

EL:

Well, the foundation was started over 20 years ago, maybe 23 years ago. We've given over probably $25 million in grants.

SM:

Wow.

EL:

We're children-based about mentoring and nurturing young people, preferably with a culinary desire. We have edible schoolyards and teaching kitchens attached, where we have gardens that elementary students learn about the soil and about what comes out of the soil. And then it goes into the kitchen to be prepared. We've not only taught young people, but we've taught a lot of parents, particularly in unfortunate circumstances. We built a culinary school called NOCCA, the New Orleans Creative Art School that never had a culinary program.

SM:

Oh.

EL:

We not only started the culinary program there for high school students, but we actually built a high school kitchen library, etc. We've had tremendous success with students coming out of there, going into the field, being accepted at the CIA or at Johnson and Wales.

SM:

Wow. Wow.

EL:

So, and we have a lot of like, I was, this past weekend, I was at one of our facilities called Cafe Hope, which is also mentoring young people. That program is more for a high school elements. They, we have a kitchen, a teaching kitchen. We have a dining facility, so the students cook for the public and or special events and I can keep going on and on. I have St. Michael's special school. I have Cafe Reconcile. It's all about mentoring children, and giving back to the communities, not only just in New Orleans. Now we, we're in 12 different states. . .

SM:

Oh wow.

EL:

. . . with our teaching, learning, kitchen garden, programs. We have five more on the drawing board. So, we, we hope that within the next five or eight years, we hope to be in just about every state in America with a teaching kitchen garden library program.

SM:

Wow, that is incredible. And I know when you're talking to some of these young people and even to the parents, sometimes they don't even know where a carrot is grown. . .

EL:

Right.

SM:

. . . or whether it's, and they don't know where anything. I remember talking to someone only recently and I was talking about beef and they had no idea where it came from. They had no idea it came from a cow. They just see it in a supermarket and they see it. And so that notion of what you're doing is very important. I think, tell me about that though.

EL:

Yeah. I have a story, I have several stories, but I have one story that I'll share with you that in a past house that my wife and I had, we had three or four orange trees in the backyard. We’re very fortunate to grow oranges here in Louisiana. And it was New Year's and we had several children that came to the house. My wife and I didn't go out. We stayed at home and we had three or four children that came over to be with our kids and their parents went out. Long story short, next morning, New Year's, I had a wagon and I took the kids and I said, come on, we're gonna go pick some oranges so that we can have some orange juice. And we'll start our morning with orange juice and then we'll have breakfast. Go out to the backyard with the kids, we pick oranges, go in the house, la-di-da-di-da-di, we start squeezing the juice. Couple days goes by and I have one of the parents, both parents call me and say, we want to thank you. Emeril, we really want to thank you. And I said, thank me for what? And said, we really want to thank you for teaching our kid where orange juice really comes from.

SM:

Oh wow.

EL:

Because she only thought that orange juice came out of a carton.

SM:

Wow. And that's what we're finding with a lot of things in LA as well. People just don't know where it comes from. And for that, I want to thank you because someone of your kind of credibility teaching people something like that is really important. So, thank you.

EL:

Thank you.

SM:

Now, before we finish these questions, I mean, you seem to have done just about everything in your life. But if you have any ambitions that are left, do you want to go to a country, whatever you want to do, what would you do?

EL:

I'd like to travel because I like to experience other cultures and other food. I think that if you can understand, if you want to understand people, you have to understand the culture. And if you want to understand the food, you've got to get to know the culture and sort of almost live it a little bit in order to understand it. So, I would like to do that. I'd like to spend some time in Asia.

SM:

Have you spent time in Asia?

EL:

No, very little time in Asia, but most of my time is on the other side of the pond. Italy, France, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, et cetera, but very little time in Asia. That's priority on my bucket list right now.

SM:

Well, I've spent a huge amount of time in Spain, which I absolutely adore, and I've spent a lot of time there. But I've spent a lot of time in Asia. My wife is Filipino, so we've spent a lot of time over there. But where would you go in Asia? What do you want to do? I mean, Japan is obviously magnificent, and we've been there.

EL:

Yeah, I mean, I'd like to start off with Tokyo.

SM:

Yeah.

EL:

And there's a lot of Michelin star restaurants there. So, I'd like to take a few of them under my belt and experience that. I'd like to go to Vietnam.

SM:

Yep.

EL:

That I have some interests there that just excites me. We have a strong Vietnamese population here in New Orleans.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

And we have some of the really good Vietnamese restaurants. And we're close to one family particularly, but we probably as a group eat Vietnamese food at least twice a week.

SM:

Oh. Which kind of because we've got we've spent a lot of time in Vietnam, so Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and all of this place. I think it has such a great experience. So, when you go over there, I know we've done it. You're going to have a wonderful time. Wonderful.

EL:

Thank you.

SM:

Now, I'm going to ask you some fun questions. So if you had to take Emeril and turn him into a meal, what would it be?

EL:

So, I would start with a bowl of fresh pasta with shaved truffles. And I would move on to some sort of gumbo, just a little bit, just for the taste.

SM:

Which type of gumbo?

EL:

I would probably seafood.

SM:

Okay.

EL:

And then I would probably just splurge myself to a double cut pork chop on sweet potatoes that have been glazed with some collard greens and green chili mole and little tamarind. And then I would finish with my banana cream pie.

SM:

I'm feeling so hungry. My wife here loves your pork chops, by the way. She absolutely adores your pork chops and she even wrote about it to her friends many years ago. So, I still remember that.

Okay, if Emeril had to go back in time to any meal at all, where would that be?

EL:

Well, I would say that I had some pretty incredible meals with Mr. Robuchon. I have some memories of being christened at the Veuve Clicquot mansion in Paris. And before I became a friend of the widow, Mireille, the president at the time, had some French chefs come and did a luncheon. I happened to be with Charlie Trotter on that voyage and it was an incredible meal. But the one dish that stood out the most, and when I came home, I did my own interpretation of it, was a very small little potato, obviously from a nearby farm, and it was poached fork tender. It was carved out, a little bit and stuffed with a truffle potato mousse. . .

SM:

Gosh.

EL:

. . . and then wrapped in blanched spinach and then re-roasted and served with a truffle sauce. It was phenomenal.

SM:

Who cooked that?

EL:

Uh, it was one of the French chefs, his name will come to me, but, um, um, yeah.

SM:

That sounds fantastic. Was it like the Ratte potato that Robuchon used for his? Was it like one of those little Ratte potatoes?

EL:

Yeah, kind of. One of the greatest things that I had that was so simple at Mr. Robuchon's restaurant was he did a pureed cauliflower soup.

SM:

Oh.

EL:

And on the bottom of the cup was all this mosaic of truffle that he pressed into the soup. Yeah, it was pretty incredible.

SM:

He's he was and I. . .

EL:

I could go on and on and on and I've had some, I've been very fortunate.

SM:

And you can go on and on here as well. But if you can, do tell us. But Robuchon for me was one of the great chefs and I've had meals at his place in Paris. So, anyone that mentions him wins my vote.

Okay, finally in this point, if Emeril had to go back in time to see the invention of anything. So, what do you think?

EL:

My life wouldn't be the same without Parmesan Reggiano cheese.

SM:

See that's fantastic and why, why would it not be the same?

EL:

I think it's the best protein bar out there in the world.

SM:

Well, that to me is the answer. You have to come up with something and that to me is a fantastic answer. So, thank you. Thank you.

EL:

Pleasure.

SM:

But finally, tell us about what social media sites you have, wherever Instagram, are you on some Substack, whatever, and just tell us what you're going to be on those so that people can follow you and they can see some of the things that you've talked about here and some of other things.

EL:

I think that they can go on Instagram. We have some amusing things that we do on there.

SM:

And what are your names on there?

EL:

At, at, at Emeril. Yup.

SM:

Oh okay.

EL:

That's a fun thing.

I do Instagram, but I don't do the TikTok and that stuff. I just, but internally what my folks do. And like I said, it's at Emeril [Ed Note: Emeril is also on Twitter/X, Facebook, and YouTube]. We, we, we do some fun videos also about trying to teach people how to cook.

SM:

Yeah, which is again, that's so important now because they try and do all kinds of stuff, but they never learn the basics and that's really important. So that's fantastic.

EL:

BAM!

SM:

BAM! I was going to ask you about BAM! but I didn't know if that's just something you don't... you just want to keep... yeah, not keep quiet but tell...

EL:

That was really just a matter of a phrase that I used to wake people up.

SM:

[Laughter]

But this is just fantastic. It's so great for me to be able to contact you and it's just it's just been great So, thank you. Thank you very much

EL:

Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much. You have a great rest of your day.

SM:

You too. And thank you.

EL:

Thank you.

OUTRO MUSIC

SM:

Make sure to check out the website associated with this podcast at www.EatMyGlobe.com where we will be posting the transcripts from each episode, along with all the references and resources we used putting the episodes together, in case you want to delve deeper into each subject. There is also a contact button, so please do let us know if there are any subjects that you would like us to cover.

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Thank you and goodbye from me, Simon Majumdar, and we’ll speak to you soon on the next episode of EAT MY GLOBE: Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Food.

CREDITS

The EAT MY GLOBE Podcast is a production of “It’s Not Much But It’s Ours” and “Producer Girl Productions.”

We would also like to thank Sybil Villanueva for all of her help both with the editing of the transcripts and essential help with the research.