2006 MenuMasters Hall of Fame

Chef Emeril Lagasse

Credited by some as ushering in the era of the celebrity chef, energetic television personality builds culinary empire

By Molly Gise

Title: chef, restaurateur, author, television host

Company: Emeril’s Homebase, New Orleans

Birth date: Oct. 15, 1959

Hometown: Fall River , Mass

Personal: married, with four children business

Hobbies: golf, fishing, playing the drums

Emeril Lagasse’s life could have marched to a different beat. Literally.

Lagasse studied percussion as a young man, and he turned down a full scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music to pursue his dream of becoming a chef.

And bam! The rest is history.

Today, the well-known culinarian has opened nine restaurants, published 10 cookbooks, stars in two cooking shows on the Food Network and through partnerships has created his own line of cookware, knives and other kitchen products.

“Emeril Live” celebrated its 1,500th show last year, and Lagasse’s cookbooks have sold more than 3.5 million copies. His restaurants are expected to pull in $75 million this year, a lower figure than anticipated because of the huge impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where three of Lagasse’s restaurants and his corporate office, Emeril’s Homebase, are located.

This month, he will be inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News MenuMasters Hall of Fame. He already has received numerous accolades from the James Beard Foundation to Wine Spectator, Esquire and People magazines.

“I never thought in a million years that there would be as much opportunity,” Lagasse says. “But I worked very, very hard for a lot of years to get where I am.”

After attending Johnson & Wales University, Lagasse traveled to Paris and Lyon, France, where he learned classic French cooking. Back in the United States, he cooked in fine-dining restaurants in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. He eventually moved to New Orleans, where he was executive chef for more than seven years at the renowned Commander’s Palace.

In 1990 he opened Emeril’s Restaurant in downtown New Orleans, the city he still calls home.

Over the next 13 years, Lagasse went on to open eight other restaurants: Nola Restaurant and Emeril’s Delmonico in New Orleans; Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House and Delmonico Steakhouse in Las Vegas; Emeril’s Restaurant Orlando and Emeril’s Tchoup Chop in Orlando, Fla.; Emeril’s Atlanta in Atlanta; and Emeril’s Miami Beach in Miami Beach, Fla.

Lagasse took his culinary interests in another direction in 1993 when he joined the Food Network, a move that he says did not receive much encouragement from his peers.

“I remember in the early days I got severely criticized by a lot of people, partly in the foodie world, because I was going to do this new platform,” Lagasse says. “Now everyone wants to have a cooking show.”

Karen Katz, executive producer of “Emeril Live” and “The Essence of Emeril” on the Food Network, says Lagasse has helped give cooking shows their immense popularity.

“Ten years ago, food and cooking shows weren’t on the forefront, and I really feel that he’s led the charge,” she says. “Chefs weren’t celebrities in the old days. Now they’re like rock stars.”

Lagasse does get the rock-star treatment from his fans, and booking an audience for his cooking shows has never been a problem, Katz says. “They go crazy,” she says, referring to fans in the audience. “The place erupts every time he walks out on stage.”

Jacques Pépin, a fellow chef, cookbook author and cooking show host, says Lagasse’s energetic approach to food has contributed to his mass appeal.

“He’s made cooking fun and easy and nonthreatening,” Pépin says. “He’s not pedantic or pretentious. He appeals to people at the core.”

Lagasse’s engaging presence has helped change how people view food and cooking, Katz says, pointing to an increased interest in gourmet food products and dining out. “I think that it’s his great gift,” she says. “He allows people to expand their repertoires with food.”

Cooking has a lot to offer to the young and old, Lagasse says, and he’s happy to share that. “People have figured out that it’s fun and it’s entertaining,” he says. “It’s a great release valve.

“It’s great for the family. It’s good for the children to learn,” he continues. “It’s more than just cooking. It’s about spending time together. It’s about reading. It’s about mathematics. It’s about chemistry.”

Lagasse still cooks for his family “just about every night,” he says. His family goes with him when he travels to New York once a month for a week to film his shows.

With more than 10 years of operating restaurants and doing television, Lagasse is positive, if uncertain, about what the future holds.

In the meantime, he has enough to focus on, including helping his restaurants in New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing flooding. The hurricane closed all three of his restaurants there, though Emeril’s Restaurant and Nola have since reopened.

Emeril’s Delmonico, located in New Orleans’ historic Garden District, remains closed after sustaining significant damage. He hopes to reopen it this fall, though he faces the same challenges as other operators there do in finding construction labor and staff for his restaurants. Emeril’s Homebase is operational, but with limited personnel.

“We’ve got to look at it as an opportunity to move forward, to build back one of America’s greatest cities,” Lagasse says. “That’s why we’re there. We believe.”

The desire to learn more has “kept the candle lit” to work hard every day, Lagasse says. His career would not be where it is without that kind of drive.

“It’s also about having a great team,” he adds. “It’s about having health and having a little luck. And having a lot of stamina to keep plugging away.”