He doesn’t have any time for himself. Or, so he says. He is
on the go every hour of the day; or, so it seems.
I am with Emeril Lagasse in Las Vegas. We’ve known each other ever since he cooked at Commander’s Palace (see March 2001 Ella Brennan: Legends Award).
“Look,” says Emeril Lagasse, “when I was with you in Louisville [we serve on
the advisory board (left) of Sullivan College’s National Center for Hospitality Studies], I had just come off the Orlando
project. That was seven weeks without a day off. Since then, it’s been two weeks
here in Las Vegas working the Delmonico’s project at The Venetian. Nine weeks without a day off. I’m killing myself. In
a nice way, of course. There,” he says, pinching minutes between his thumb and
forefinger, “that’s about as much time I have for personal life.”
 |
| With Emeril and the rest of the Sullivan College board. |
Ten years ago, Food
& Wine magazine named Emeril a “Rising Star,” a year after he had
opened Emeril’s in New Orleans. Now,
five more restaurants later (two in New Orleans, two in Las Vegas, and one in
Orlando), he is killing himself. In a nice way, of course.
He manages to rise above the dissonance and the flak,
“kickin’ it up a notch” as it were with his own version of “bams.” He’d like to
throttle the twerp at the New York Times
(she remains nameless) who, after begging Lagasse for a few minutes of his
time, after pleading with him to let her sit in on just one more of his “Emeril Live” shows on The Food Network
(“I had such a great time at the first one,” she tells him. “Pretty please?”),
she fabricates (there is no better word) a column that mercilessly skewers him,
his style, his joie de vivre, his
cooking. “I took it very personally,” he says. “She was very abusive, very
destructive. But then 55,000 people took issue with the fabrication. The
Internet is a marvelous device. I sent her flowers and thanked her.”
Speaking of the show, here’s the drill. He travels to New
York once every six to seven weeks for one week. There at The Food Network
studios, he tapes three live shows a day. Fifteen shows in one week. Tickets to
the show? You want tickets? TFN is inundated with requests: they come by phone,
by mail, through Cyberspace. Two weeks ago, 500,000 requests for 1,500 tickets.
“We went to a lottery system,” says Lagasse.
Fame can be intoxicating, yet Emeril manages to stay
grounded. Should you ever be named a Rising Star in whatever medium, will you
be able to handle your fame as well as he has?
Your first year at
Emeril’s and suddenly you’re a Food & Wine Rising Star. What did
that do for you and to you?
Naturally, in the foodie world, it was recognized as some
sort of Wow. This is somebody we have got to really watch and keep an eye on.
We need to check out the restaurant. But, the restaurant to be checked out is in New Orleans where we’re not wrapped up in
or obsessed with image . . . and that’s unfortunate. Sometimes you have to knock a
little harder there to get attention.
You told me earlier,
“I’m, still a rising star . . .”
Look, if you are in the business 100 years, you still are not
going to scratch the surface. My attitude when I wake up? To exceed what I did the day before. Listen,
there’s so much to learn. I tell people [who work in this business], “If you walk out of the restaurant and
you have not learned something, not only are you cheating yourself, you are a
fool.”
What commitment must
you make to exceed the previous day’s standards of excellence?
Education is everything and as someone said better than I,
“knowledge is power.” We spend a lot of time every single day training the
staff. Their knowledge base grows, their expectations grow, they’re making the
customers’ expectations and knowledge grow. When all you do, day after day
after day is follow—that’s when mediocrity sets in.
Rising Star, all the
other awards and accolades: worth it?
I’ll tell you something: those things don’t pay the rent.
Something else: I’m not wrapped up in all that stuff. I’m just doing what I’m doing. I’m just a
cook. I’m trying to perfect my craft. I can’t afford to be wrapped up in all of
that nonsense. I’ve seen too many people get wrapped up in it; and I don’t like
what I see. It’s nice. It’s also a distraction if you let it distract you.
But without the
restaurant, without the Rising Star recognition . . .
You’re right, Emeril’s is the flagship. Everything started
there. Without Emeril’s, there would be no second or third, fourth, fifth
restaurant; no cookbooks, no TV show.
Maybe when you were at
Commander’s Palace, having replaced Paul Prudhomme, a voice inside you said, “One of these days, I’m going to be
really great.”
Maybe when I was 12 years old, working in a Portuguese
bakery, that voice came to me.
And when did you
figure you were somebody great?
I haven’t figured that out yet. Well, no, that’s not
necessarily true. About three years ago, the horns are beeping in New York City
and taxicab drivers are going, “Yo, Emeril . . .” That’s when I figured
something was starting to change.
Is the celebrity bit
all it’s cracked up to be?
I’ve sacrificed a lot. But, I don’t have any regrets. I
don’t have a lot of time to myself. I wish I had more. I’m not with my
daughters as often as I’d like.
Any advice you’d like
to give future Rising Stars?
Stay focused. Lead, don’t follow. Keep your eyes and ears
open and your mouth shut. Don’t believe all of your press clippings—good or bad.
You’re only as good as your last meal. Set trends, don’t follow them. Keep the
momentum going.
Your legacy as an
evolving Rising Star?
Scary enough that I’ll be remembered as the guy with this
“bam” thing. Better? Years from now, maybe someone will say, “Oh, there’s
Emeril. He’s a little older now, but he really did something for the American
table.”
Afterthoughts: Emeril Lagasse Has An Epiphany...click here to read more >>
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