Recipe of the Day Categories:
 Recipe Home
Recipe Index
Appetizers
Beef
Beverage
Bread
Breakfast
Cake
Chocolate
Cookies
Fish
Fruit
Main Dish
Pasta
Pies
Pork
Poultry
Salad
Seafood
Side Dish
Soup
Vegetable
Surprise!
Have a heart for
New Orleans
 
Cigar Aficionado
Gourmet
Hoover, Darrin
Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com
French Quarter
Evening
Krist, Bob
Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com
Framed Mounted
 
New Orleans Magazine (1 year)
Le Menu
Garant, Jennifer
Buy this Framed Set at AllPosters.com
 
Bourbon Street
Blues II
Brasher, Robert
Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com
|
|
Your
patronage of our affiliate
partners supports this web site.
We thank you! In other words, please shop at LBC
Gift Galerie!
New Orleans LA
Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com
"Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside
of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins."
~ Ignatius J. Reilly from 'A
Confederacy of Dunces'
Okay. Fine. Perhaps you are still
an Emeril fan. Or perhaps you are among
those who by now have reached the saturation point.
Emeril, Emeril,
Emeril...
We here at LBC admit to admiring the Celebrity Chef's culinary capabilities.
And yes,
we have gladly given him all manner of free publicity (like he needed
it!) in
addition to touting his ever-increasing number of Celebrity Cookbooks.
So, what's the problem, then?
Sadly, our admiration of Emeril does not extend to the chef's extraordinary entrepreneurship
which, alas, smacks
somehow of an ego run rampant.
You remember
my
son the chef, no? Actually, we've been hearing for years
now through the culinary grapevine
that Chef Emeril had become somewhat
full of himself. Damned shame.
Tarnishes the image.
The chef who was catapulted to fame and fortune in this city has long claimed
to have a heart for New Orleans. "That's my
home," he says. Talk is cheap.
What we would like to know is when Chef Emeril
is going to walk the walk!
It is a fair question, is it not? Hot air is one
thing.
Loyalty is quite another.
A busy schedule did not seem to keep Harry Connick, Jr. away from
his hometown when the going got tough. Celebrity or no, the man gave of
himself. Nothing deterred
Drago's from serving thousands of free meals.
As noted below,
Chef
Paul
Prudhomme did not decline to support New
Orleans in a most personal
way, by feeding them!
"That's my job,
to lift people up with great food,"
says Chef Paul.
So, Chef Emeril. Just what IS the problem, then?
Where's Emeril?
Celebrity chef has been a New Orleans no-show since the storm
By Brett
Anderson Restaurant writer
The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Emeril Lagasse appeared on the cover of Cigar Aficionado
magazine this month, but he hasn't appeared in New Orleans
since Hurricane Katrina hit.
“Emeril Lagasse has, in
the way only Emeril Lagasse can, appeared to be everywhere recently.
Everywhere but New Orleans.
Since Hurricane Katrina forced the closure of Lagasse's three New Orleans
restaurants and layoffs within his company, the quintessential celebrity chef
has maintained a rigorous schedule of appearances, and not just on his two
television shows, 'Emeril Live' and 'Essence of Emeril,' both of which air daily
on the Food Network.
There are the 'Good Morning America' segments every Friday and, in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, big-ticket charity events in New York City,
Las Vegas, Miami
and elsewhere. You'll also find him on the covers of
the October issues of
Gourmet and Cigar Aficionado magazines.
Earlier this month saw the release of his 11th cookbook, 'Delmonico: A
Restaurant With a Past,' prompting a publicity tour kick-off on 'The
Tonight Show With Jay Leno.'
The busy schedule is, in fact, Lagasse said, one of the reasons he hasn't gotten
around to visiting New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit the city Aug. 29.
'I know this is a major catastrophe, but I work so far in advance. My
things are
planned, my people are planned,' Lagasse said Wednesday
from Raleigh, N.C.,
another book-tour stop. But even in absentia,
Lagasse contends, 'I don't know
anyone out there who's been more
rah-rah for the city of New Orleans in the last couple of weeks.'
[Sorry, but "rah-rah" just does not get it in our book...]
In terms of people reached, Lagasse may be right. As arguably the most
recognizable restaurant chef in the world, and perhaps the most famous
personality in Louisiana, Lagasse commands a large audience whenever
he speaks.
But for Lagasse, New Orleans is more than home. The chef, a
Massachusetts
native, fixed his star to the city's culinary reputation
when
he took over the
kitchen at Commander's Palace in 1983, and
both the
man and the city have
benefited tremendously. Emeril's,
Emeril's
Delmonico and NOLA, the chef's New
Orleans restaurants,
are part
of a nine-restaurant empire that includes
locations in Las Vegas,
Orlando, Miami and Atlanta. Emeril's Homebase, the
company that
oversees all
his business operations as well as the name of his New
Orleans
headquarters on St. Charles Avenue, brings in nearly $200
million in
annual revenue, according to Gourmet.
Almost seven weeks after New Orleans fell victim to the worst natural disaster
in the country's history, it's fair to question the chef's priorities.
His
business has taken a hit -- while none of his restaurants flooded,
Emeril's
was
looted and Delmonico damaged by wind. But the company
is
diversified,
geographically and otherwise. With revenue streaming in
from sources as
disparate as toothpaste endorsements, branded cookware
and wildly popular
restaurants in still-thriving locales, Lagasse is certainly doing
a whole lot
better than the city that launched him.
At the very least, one imagines the folks in Raleigh would understand if
the
chef postponed his book signing to survey what has been lost, and personally
provide a lift to those who lost it.
Instead, Lagasse said, he deliberately laid low after the storm.
'I stayed out of the media purposefully for the first couple of weeks,' he
said.
'I didn't think it was the right thing to do.'
Lagasse did not emerge from Katrina personally unscathed. His West
Bank mansion
was damaged, but not destroyed, and the house he was renovating on the
Mississippi coast was, as he put it, reduced to 'two
sticks.' While his wife and
children evacuated safely, he had to arrange to move his daughter's wedding
ceremony to Las Vegas from New Orleans, where the nuptials were scheduled for
the weekend after the storm.
In the days after Katrina hit, Lagasse said, 'I was the guy that spent 18
hours a day on the telephone, finding people, moving people, (checking on) the
other six restaurants . . . now I've got a third less revenue. I was running the
business, and the business is about people.'
Before Katrina, Lagasse employed 380 people in New Orleans. His management team
is still intact, he said, and many restaurant employees
were relocated to other
operations in Las Vegas, Atlanta and Florida. He
can't say how many of his New
Orleans employees are still on the payroll.
'My problem is, I got everybody all over the place. Some are in Atlanta,
some
are in Orlando, my assistant's in L.A.,' Lagasse said. We had layoffs
at Homebase, but we tried to have as few as possible.'
One Homebase employee no longer on the payroll said she was informed
of her job
status during a Sept. 12 phone call from a supervisor. 'This is
your last day,'
the employee was told. 'There will be no more paychecks.'
Another Homebase employee said she called her supervisor the Wednesday after the
storm to inform him of her willingness to work from afar. 'The following
Wednesday he called and said that I was being let go,' she said.
'There was no mention of any sort of coming back.'
The quick layoffs contrasted sharply with Dickie Brennan and Company's decision
to keep all of its roughly 400 full-time employees on the payroll,
with checks
including tips for wait staff.
Coupled with Lagasse's relatively low profile in the weeks following
Katrina, the cutbacks -- which, according to an employee still working for
Homebase, included accountants assigned to Lagasse's local restaurants -- bred
uncertainty as to whether the chef would return to New Orleans at all.
Lagasse's first public comments about the future of his restaurants were
made
Sept. 16 on 'Good Morning America.'
'I want to give people jobs, believe me,' Lagasse said, according to the
transcripts. "I want to get back there and rebuild and want to be a part of
the community. My heart is with my staff.' [Yeah, right...]
Later in the segment, Lagasse said, 'I can't wait to get back in there.'
[Blah,
blah, blah...]
A month later, he still hasn't. But he insists that he will. Eventually.
'I can't be more positive about New Orleans,' he said. 'That's my home. That's Homebase.
As soon as we can get open, believe me, we'll be open.'
A multitude of issues is holding Lagasse back from saying exactly when
he'll
reopen his local restaurants. He's worried about the health risks,
about
supplies, about staffing, about another hurricane. His brother and
both parents,
all Homebase employees, are on the ground, reporting back
to him.
'I lost pretty much all our refrigeration,' Lagasse said. 'That stuff is all
custom built.'
It's also too early to tell how much of his restaurants' world-class wine
collections made it through the storm.
'I've got to make a decision shortly,' he said, 'but putting a date on it, I
can't really answer that right now.'
In the meantime, Lagasse said he will continue to appear on television and
at
book signings. He's due to sign books at a Sam's Wholesale Club in Philadelphia
on Wednesday.
When pressed to explain why he has yet to make an appearance in New Orleans,
Lagasse re-emphasized his ongoing fund-raising efforts for victims
of the storm.
On Tuesday, an eight-course dinner for 20 prepared by
Lagasse and chef Mario
Batali was auctioned off for $100,000 at a benefit
in New York City. Lagasse
said the money will go directly into the Emeril Lagasse Employee Disaster Relief
Fund, which was set up to benefit all
non-management employees in his company,
including those who were
laid off.
'I did a thing at the Smithsonian with Cokie Roberts, talking positive about New
Orleans,' Lagasse said, referring to another recent book signing, this one at
George Washington University. 'I do that stuff every day. Unfortunately, I'm not
on the local Channel 6 in front of the broken window at Emeril's.'
If he had been, Lagasse no doubt would have attracted the attention of
every
major media outlet reporter and camera crew in New Orleans to
cover the
devastation. The message blasted around the world would have been priceless: I'm
a New Orleanian. I'm here to help. I'm coming back.
[Yeah, you right, Brett! That would have been walking the walk...]
That's the message another New Orleans celebrity chef, Paul Prudhomme, sent out
Sept. 20 during an appearance on MSNBC's 'Hardball With
Chris Matthews.'
'We're feeding anybody in sight,' Prudhomme said via satellite from the
French Quarter. 'If you're hungry, we want to feed you. . . . If you're in
the
military, we especially want to feed you.'
'That's my job, to lift people up with great food.'
That Lagasse, one of popular culture's great media masters, took a pass
on the
chance to put his own mega-celebrity to good use at such an unprecedented moment
is just one of many post-Katrina mysteries. What
isn't a mystery is that plenty
of people have managed to do what Lagasse
has yet to attempt: serve food to
people in post-Katrina New Orleans. Everyone has obstacles.
On the first night that New Orleans water was certified drinkable,
sommelier
Jeff Kundinger, whose Lakeview home was destroyed by
Katrina, donned a coat and
tie to work the floor at
Cuvée. Chef Bob Iacovonne labored essentially alone in
the kitchen. His pastry chef and
both his sous chefs were rattled by the storm.
'None of them are
coming back,' he said.
The menu that night included a shrimp and fried mirliton Napoleon, a
Cuvée
signature, and crab-topped salmon in brie orzo. Producing food
of that quality
in post-Katrina New Orleans requires hunger, courage
and sacrifice. And as
anyone who has eaten in post-Katrina New
Orleans
has come to understand, being
the recipient of such a gesture
is more nourishing than mere food could ever be.
[And just have a look at what Drago's
is doing!]
When he could sell cookbooks to an audience of millions, why would
Lagasse
bother?”
Used
with permission.
Restaurant writer Brett Anderson can be reached at
banderson@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3353
Why, indeed?
Once again, Mr. Anderson has done a fine reporting job.
Thank you, Brett!
And BTW, in case you missed it, you might want to
check out what he had
to say about the
hullabaloo at Galatoire's a while
back. Classic New Orleans!
Under more normal circumstances we would be offering you
new recipes
at this point. Today you probably expect new Emeril recipes, right?
Sorry. Somehow, we're just not in the mood...
Take care, be well, stay safe, and walk the walk!
And please. Give the best gift of all: yourself.
Michele
New
Orleans restaurants in the aftermath
of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
“No more duty can be urged upon those who are entering the
great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions.”
~
Edwin Hubbel Chapin
"It
seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love,
are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of
one without
the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am
really writing about
love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love
of it and the hunger for it…
and then the warmth and richness and fine
reality of hunger satisfied… and it
is all one."
-
 M.F.K.
Fisher, from  The Art of Eating
Current Spice Cabinet Feature
Index
- The Spice Cabinet
Major
Morsels
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
Recipe Archives Index
|
La Belle Cuisine 