- 8 minutes ago
At just 22, Chef E.J. Lagasse has led Emeril’s in New Orleans to 2 Michelin stars, becoming one of the youngest chefs to run a two-star kitchen. Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with E.J., who takes us behind the scenes of his 16-course tasting menu rooted in Creole and Cajun cuisine and how he is carrying on his family’s legacy, taking after his chef and restaurateur father, Emeril Lagasse.
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00:01Emeril's is a fine dining restaurant. It's based in New Orleans, Louisiana.
00:04My dad, Emeril, who a lot of people know from the Emeril Live days and yelling BAM.
00:08We've had a restaurant in New Orleans for 35 years.
00:10I'm the chef owner here. I'm 22.
00:12And just a couple months ago, we got two stars from Michelin.
00:14And it happened to make me the youngest person to ever lead a two-star kitchen.
00:18There are people that have been here from the beginning,
00:20and there are people that have been here two weeks.
00:22But they all have this great sense of responsibility
00:24and this great sense of intention behind everything that they do.
00:27To see those people that have been here 30, 35 years,
00:30the way that they've embraced all the things happening in this restaurant
00:32and the excitement that they get when they show up every single day.
00:35I mean, if that doesn't make you want to get up early in the morning and come to work,
00:37I don't know what does.
00:45Hi, my name is EJ Lagasse.
00:46I'm the chef co-owner here at Emeril's in New Orleans, Louisiana.
00:50It's about 10 a.m. and we've got a lot to do.
00:52So let's get started.
00:55So this is it.
00:57It's 12 tables.
00:58There you can see the kitchen.
00:59All the views of the guests.
01:00They get to see a stress in the food there.
01:02All the guests come back on a tour of the kitchen at the beginning of the experience.
01:06Kind of wanted to show off some of the ingredients.
01:09This is the kitchen.
01:10Over on this side, you see the pastry room.
01:11This becomes the canapé section later in the day.
01:14And then at the end of the night, it becomes the menu D section.
01:16Then we have the gourmet section there.
01:18This is the stove.
01:19Two main sections.
01:20So we have a meat line and a fish line.
01:23So it's 10-20.
01:25I'm setting up for foie gras, which is one of my first snacks in the day.
01:28It's for oyster stew, which is the signature dish here at the restaurant and has been for many years.
01:32We use a really rigid brigade system here.
01:35When you have a restaurant like this, where there's like a 15, 16 course tasting menu.
01:39So you get a large team.
01:40It's like 24, 28 people in the kitchen between the day team and the night team.
01:45This is Hudson Valley, grade A foie gras.
01:47I think it's the best that you can get.
01:49So you can kind of see that it's a little bit like flexible there, kind of malleable.
01:52So we're just going to separate it out there.
01:53And then we're just going to start making some nice portions.
01:57We'll get them all the same size, obviously, for even cooking in a restaurant like ours and just the format
02:02of our dining room.
02:03It's a lot of two tops.
02:04So you try to get a lot of things that match in pairs.
02:06We use the trim of the foie gras in a couple of different things.
02:09It's mounted into one of our signature sauces here, a creole jus gras, which is served with our boudin course.
02:13And then we, in the wine bar, utilize it to make a foie gras torchon.
02:16And just because it's the wintertime here, we're also using it in the canapé right now for the snack that
02:20guests get when they get back into the kitchen.
02:22Foie gras is done.
02:23Our executive sous chef Riley and our chef de cuisine Emily and I are going to get together and talk
02:28about some admin stuff and a new dish we're working on.
02:34We're going to get some coffee on the way.
02:36So normally we have cold brew and things like that throughout the day.
02:38We do send our guests home with café au lait, which is just coffee and milk.
02:43And Chef Emily and I sometimes steal some of this, so.
02:46Oh, you went hot today.
02:47I did, yeah.
02:48Oooh!
02:51Okay, let's talk about the sweetbread a little bit.
02:52I'm going to reach out to our friend, Mr. Noel, as far as crawfish, because it's the only person that
02:58I know has them right now.
02:59Yeah.
02:59Other than that, it's either going to be pistol for frozen or fortune.
03:03I still think we should go the route you were doing last year with the live peel and then the
03:08steam.
03:08Yeah.
03:08I think that's probably the most efficient. And then we get the shells.
03:11I also think we need to look at how we're poaching them again, because I know we were doing it
03:15corp bouillon and all that, but they still weren't as flavorful as I think we can get them.
03:19This sweetbread feels like we have a plan. There's all the things coming in season for it. And as we've
03:25been saying to the front of house team, I think that this is the moment where we get in every
03:28year, where we're sat in the spring.
03:30There's actually an abundance of so many different things available to us that are distinctly from within 100 miles from
03:37here that we can really change things as we want to.
03:40No.
03:41Pistol.
03:42Whoa.
03:43Hey, there's the guy.
03:45Whoa.
03:45Hollywood.
03:46Mr. Louisiana.
03:48Pistol is here. Pistol, say hi.
03:50Hello.
03:51He's our shrimp guy. Just shrimp. Big deal here in Louisiana. His truck's outside, so we're going to go take
03:56a look at the delivery.
04:02Yeah.
04:03Oh, let me see him. Let me see him.
04:04These are beautiful Louisiana shrimp, 9 to 12 to the pound, straight out of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Get them pretty
04:11much every day. The sweetest shrimp on the planet.
04:14Nothing like it. Nothing like it. Look at this over the shoulder. Shrimp cowboy, man. Come on, give it a
04:20press-up. Give it a press-up.
04:23Thanks, buddy. You bring the crawfish Saturday.
04:26Sad.
04:26Because we're doing it. We're testing a dish with you.
04:29Are you bringing Saturday?
04:30Yeah, let me call him right now. Make sure.
04:32Just let me know. I preferred Saturday, but if it has to be the water, it's tomorrow.
04:35Just one right to the normal Saturday.
04:36Normal Saturday.
04:37Okay.
04:38Pretty much our main farmer, Alan, is here. He's got pigs for us today, but he brings a plethora of
04:43stuff throughout the evening.
04:44Hey, man. How are you?
04:44Hey, man. How are you?
04:45This is the great Alan Snelling. Alan here and I have been working together probably three and a half years
04:51now.
04:51We really wanted to have somebody that would raise animals for us.
04:54How long would you need to school up another cycle of quail if we decided to build quail instead of
04:58land?
04:59I need five weeks.
05:01Five weeks?
05:02Yeah.
05:02That's pretty good.
05:03Five weeks quail.
05:05Probably.
05:06If you're able to do it, I think that we were leaning yesterday when we were talking about development in
05:10general.
05:11We were leaning towards quail instead of lamb this year to try something different.
05:16A lot of guests are asking for quails.
05:18Thanks, bud.
05:18Well, look.
05:19Let me sign that thing for you and we got a lot of stuff to do, so we'll go get
05:22back to you.
05:22All right.
05:26It's about two o'clock now and things are really starting to get going here in the kitchen.
05:30We are three and a half hours away from service starting, so we're going to check in over here on
05:34the meat entremé.
05:35We got Brandon.
05:36Brandon has got some collard greens going.
05:38We have some salty onions as well, some lovely bacon.
05:41We just sautéed it in some oil, some garlic, got a little bit of maple verjus in here, and we're
05:46just going to sauté these down.
05:47So this is for the boudin course.
05:48Next to the boudin, we do this little chufarsi, stuffed cabbage, basically, but we fill it with collard greens.
05:54A boudin is a Louisiana-style sausage.
05:56I mean, there's many styles of it, but for us here, it's a wet, short-grain rice added in with
06:00all parts of the pig that you saw from Alan earlier.
06:03Moving on next door, it's Chef Charlie here.
06:05Chef.
06:06Portioning some of the Wagyu for us, the A5 Miyazaki.
06:09It's a supplement on our menu, so definitely not one of the things from New Orleans, but something we like
06:13to have for the guests.
06:14And we try to bring it back a little bit to New Orleans.
06:16It's done with a traditional Dope Glossé, which is a pressé that we make with sort of short rib and
06:21foie gras and andouille and all these things together.
06:23We're going to go this way over to the fist section.
06:24Matt, hey.
06:25Chef, how you doing?
06:26Matt's making one of my favorite things here on the menu.
06:29It's Herb Saint Cream.
06:30I got some Trinity, and once I sweat some of the liquid out, I'm going to go in with some
06:34Herb Saint Pour.
06:35And then we're just going to cook the alcohol out, and we'll go in with about a gallon of cream.
06:39Trinity, the Holy Trinity, some refer to it, is like the mirepoix of New Orleans.
06:44But we use celery, onion, and poblano because poblano, we feel, is just a little bit more flavorful than green
06:50bell peppers.
06:50So what Matt put in here is Herb Saint.
06:54This is from New Orleans.
06:55It's an anise liqueur.
06:57It smells like fennel and licorice, and it is vibrant, vibrant green.
07:00So you see like how it deglazed in the pan, and you can see it turns the onions kind of
07:04green.
07:04Oh my god, that smells so good.
07:06I wish Smell-O-Vision was invented for moments like this.
07:10We've got what is the gourmage section.
07:12Declanier is starting to get on some brunoise for his shallots, but he's also building the cheesecake.
07:17It's the first dish that was ever put on an Emerald's menu, and it's also the first thing that everybody
07:21gets in the tasting menu.
07:22So it's very simple.
07:23It's brisee-style French pastry crust, and then it's filled with two layers.
07:26Creole cream cheese bavoie, and then the smoked salmon mousseline on top, and then a lot of caviar.
07:31We're on to the canapé section. We've got Alex and Daniela here, and they are getting rolling to prep some
07:36spring rolls.
07:37Shout out Thotau Bay on Thule Nav, one of the best Vietnamese spots in town.
07:42And we are addicted to their spring rolls. We get them multiple times a week here at the restaurant.
07:47I do want to introduce a special somebody. This is Chief, who has been here.
07:50Chief, when did you start? You remember your start date?
07:52I'm not sure, but it was like 97.
07:54So that predates me on planet Earth. We are sort of into the pastry section.
08:00Hold on a second. We've just pulled king cakes out. Incredible.
08:03It is Mardi Gras here right now. We're about to start dressing those.
08:07It's a brioche, though, with the cream cheese filling inside.
08:11We use a little bit rum and citrus with it. It's a classic flavor using for the king cake usually.
08:17So we do a little take-home bag. If you remember, when I was drinking my coffee earlier, I was
08:21talking about the coffee that we give to the guests.
08:22Well, this is sort of the other treat that we give them in the bag. And the hope is that
08:25they pop the coffee in the fridge and they keep the king cake on the counter and can enjoy both
08:29the next morning.
08:30This is Mr. V, day one, one of the originals.
08:33Thank you. Good to meet you.
08:35It's 2.15. I'm going to go do our front of house manager meeting and kind of talk about what
08:39service is going to look like tonight. Let's go do that.
08:45We are in, now, our private dining room. Every day, our general manager Brandon, Brandon Grow the Great, and our
08:52wine director Aaron Benjamin.
08:53We get together and talk a little bit about how service is going to go.
08:56We're going to go through the guests that are coming in tonight.
08:58The most important thing for us, obviously, is allergies or any sort of changes that we have to make to
09:02menus.
09:02Very nice, straightforward shift. 18 tables, five relays. The only allergy we are aware of is going to be an
09:08oyster allergy.
09:09We'll have to be on second turn. And that oyster allergy, we'll do a sub-Trinity Tambioka for that, no
09:13oyster.
09:14We do have two bloggers as well. He has written a few articles about New Orleans already, but never about
09:20emeralds.
09:21Okay. He's been to all the classics of the city.
09:23Let's show him some love and make sure we explain Po'boys and everything. A little bit of champagne as
09:27well.
09:27I think champagne's wine on that. We can do a splash.
09:29The 8 o'clock at the end of the first turn, that is going to be our oyster version.
09:32Yeah, I see that.
09:33Trinity Tambioka, a little big deal. And they are coming in from England, so across the pond.
09:37Here for us, specifically.
09:39See if we can get them closer to the window. I'd love to let them see it a little bit
09:42more,
09:42especially since they're friends with a lot of the industry guys and I'm sure are interested in kitchens in that
09:46regard.
09:46Do you got any wine stuff for us back?
09:48Actually, very large news. We just secured some very incredible Japanese wine. Very rare.
09:55I know nothing about this.
09:56Three cases coming into the U.S. in total. We have one case. Very, very rare, very coveted.
10:02I'm very excited.
10:02Man, that is so cool.
10:04I'm very excited about that.
10:05All right, guys. Well, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
10:07It is 2.45. We're all a little bit hungry. Been here for a minute now, so we're going to
10:11go get some food.
10:16It's like 3.15. We're back from family meal. Everybody's here now. Just really at this point in the day,
10:22what my day comes down to, what Chef Emily's day comes down to, Chef Riley's day comes down to, is
10:26bouncing around.
10:27Anybody that needs any assistance, just making sure that everybody's there for service.
10:31We're going to check in with Matt again. He's got his Herb Saint sauce that's been going down, and he's
10:34also just started doing the trout portioning.
10:36We get Mississippi trout, and on the pickup, I'll sear it, dough in some butter, get a nice brown on
10:42it.
10:42Once I send the fish to the pass, I'll take that brown butter, I'll sweat out some shallots, some capers,
10:47some almonds, and then I'll cool down the pan with some lemon juice.
10:51And then I'll finish with parsley and send that trout sauce to the pass.
10:54Trout almondine is one of those things in New Orleans that you can't go without.
10:58It happens to be my favorite fish course of any of the New Orleans-style fish dishes.
11:03Oh, thanks.
11:06Thank you. Yep.
11:08More coffee.
11:09So that's the Café au lait that you saw earlier, but that's the batch for tonight for the guests to
11:13take home.
11:13But we're just checking to make sure there's not too much sugar or anything in it.
11:16Make sure there's enough chicory steeped into it.
11:17Chicory is a very classic thing for New Orleans.
11:20It was a way that they used to sort of stretch their coffee rations, if you will, back in the
11:24day.
11:24So it's found its way in and really is part of that New Orleans culture of coffee and beignets.
11:30Literally that quick, yeah.
11:31Yeah.
11:31It just comes through and makes sure we're all good and back to it.
11:36Keep letting that come down.
11:37We might have to adjust the season before you finish.
11:39Yes, sir.
11:39A lot of what Chef Emily and I end up doing throughout the day is sort of hopping in where
11:43help is needed.
11:44Today, that help happens to be in the canapes section.
11:47Canapes are the small bites at the start of the meal and a lot of fine dining restaurants.
11:50And we've got a lot of them, so we're going to help out there.
11:52Give me a rundown of everything you don't have right now between them.
11:55I don't have tuna spice.
11:56It's in the blaster.
11:57Here we go.
11:58From there, we are compressing the cucumber.
12:00I'm building gumbo cuts.
12:02I'm cutting cowboy bread.
12:03We are seasoning our as a minnache right now.
12:05Okay, I'm going to give them tuna.
12:07This is just some gulf tuna, bluefin.
12:10I'm going to be portioning this.
12:11We have a tuna sandwich.
12:12It's basically in between two crispy sheets of nori with avocado and cucumber on top,
12:16dressed in a white shoyu vinaigrette.
12:18So, yeah, just going to portion some of that.
12:19Chef, when did those start if you're on your sleeve?
12:21We actually had it done for the day that everything happened.
12:24We were hoping for the best and we were talking to our guy that supplies our coats
12:27and we were like, it'd be a really cool thing if the day that it happened,
12:29if you watch the ceremony, my man, then if you can have some coats done for the next day?
12:33And he was like, yeah.
12:34And we were sitting, having a meeting in the private room,
12:37and then he walked in the door and was like, I got them.
12:39I told you I was going to be able to do it if it happened.
12:41So here they are.
12:42So in a couple of minutes now, the team's going to get scrubbing down.
12:45The whole kitchen's going to get clean, top to bottom.
12:54Just cutting the pass lights on, we are steamrolling towards 4.45 right now.
12:58Two things are going to happen simultaneously.
13:00Here in about two minutes, we're going to go out into the dining room,
13:03both Chef Emily and I, and brief the front of house staff on any of the changes,
13:08any of the things that they need to know for the day.
13:09And simultaneously while that's happening, all of the testers are going to come up.
13:14Little bits and pieces of every single dish.
13:16And the sous chefs, Chef Emily and myself, will all taste it
13:19and make any last-minute adjustments that we need to make before we go into service.
13:22And really the last chance for us to check everything.
13:25If anybody in a suit still has their replacement button for said suit,
13:29I would greatly appreciate it.
13:31The dry cleaners broke one of the buttons on my suits.
13:34If we can get some help from maybe the kitchen, team three,
13:37I'd love to get them promoted off table nine.
13:38But that is what the only table we really have available.
13:41They're flying in from across the pond.
13:43They do not eat oysters.
13:44We shall overcome Trinity tapioca with...
13:47Anoki mushroom po'boy.
13:49We were having our meeting this morning and Pistol showed up, Pistol Pete,
13:52and has confirmed that we're going to be getting our first sack of crawfish
13:55for the testers on Saturday morning.
13:57So expect that sweetbread change coming up very, very soon.
14:01We have plenty of black truffle received a delivery this morning.
14:04I know that we were at the end of the black truffle last night.
14:07Okay, just want to remind everybody, five shaves of that on said thing.
14:10That's it for me though.
14:11Have a great service, guys.
14:12Thank you very much.
14:15Chef Relly has basically a checklist that just goes ingredient by ingredient.
14:19But this really is our last chance to make any tweaks or any adjustments.
14:22And you'll see that come basically off here.
14:24We have a section for notes.
14:26It was a nice bite today.
14:28How did I not say that today at some point?
14:30Soon I can use a little bit of salt.
14:32There's too much pre-hole seasoning on the bungee shrimp.
14:34A little bit of Worcestershire.
14:36A little bit of salt.
14:37And potentially a little more butter.
14:39That's definitely not right.
14:41M.
14:41We can't use this.
14:43I don't know if somebody dipped it in just the citric acid or what?
14:47Approaching now on 515.
14:49A couple of things we were going to adjust, but nothing that is too, too crazy.
14:53I'm going to show you sort of the last little thing of the day.
14:55Daniela and some of the other team members have picked out some of the best of the stuff
14:58and just separate it out to the side so that we can display that for the guest.
15:03So as I said at the beginning of the day, this is sort of the first thing that the guests
15:06see.
15:07And the ice and the display of all the produce.
15:09But this is the last thing that you're going to see today.
15:11So thanks so much.
15:12We appreciate it.
15:13And hope to see you around.
15:15Cheers.
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