You may know Emeril Lagasse’s face, flair and food from your mom or aunt’s TV screen back in the 1990s. Although he remains a popular celebrity chef even now, his heyday may have been three decades ago, when he launched his seminal food show “How to Boil Water” on the Food Network. This can mean only one thing: Lagasse’s largesse was no fad. He has stood the test of time.
As such, we think it wise to look to him when in search of good dish recommendations, whether the motivation is to make something comforting for the family or prepare an elaborate feast for guests. Lagasse is also a great guide because not only has exhibited proof of a developed palate, but he also boasts a certain degree of versatility, meaning we are likely to find something for everyone among the list of his favorite foods. Indeed, Lagasse was born and trained as a chef in Massachusetts, among a large Portuguese community — of which his family was a part — that taught him the foundations of cooking and baking. He proceeded to earn a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales University, after which he moved to New Orleans, where he cemented his career, especially through his adoption and love of creole food. Let’s take a look at Emeril’s favorite foods as shaped by his formative experiences and beyond.
Read more: 44 Types Of Pasta And When You Should Be Using Them
Roasted Salmon And Lentils
Baked salmon on a plate with asparagus – Jacek Chabraszewski/Shutterstock
This dish sounds more like something your mother might make you eat to be healthy, but when Emeril Lagasse makes it, it’s a whole other story. In fact, it’s so good that his son, EJ Lagasse, an acclaimed chef in his own right, considers it his favorite childhood meal, so much that now he makes it himself when his dad isn’t around. In an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, Lagasse father and son confirmed that this dish is so popular in their family that they’re still making it today.
Specifically, as the younger Lagasse noted, the pulses were “Lentils du Puy with cumin and carrots and the whole deal, with either green beans or something on the side.” As for the roasted salmon, he did not specify the mode of cooking, but you may be able to find an easy baked salmon recipe among our favorites good enough to rival Lagasse’s recipe. If you’re wondering whether you can get this dish at one of Emeril’s restaurants, don’t hold your breath. In the interview, EJ, addressing his dad, notes that “you never did the restaurant dishes at home, because you knew that we were eating them when we would come and eat at Emeril’s Steakhouse or wherever we would be.”
Caldo Verde Soup
Bowl of caldo verde soup – Jacek Chabraszewski/Shutterstock
This Portuguese delicacy is a clear nod to Emeril Lagasse’s Portuguese heritage. In an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, Lagasse explained that his mother’s caldo verde soup may be the dish he prepares the most at home, indicating that her recipe was an all-time favorite. And it’s easy to see why: The soup is a tasty combination of potatoes, Portuguese sausage, and kale that includes both healthful vegetables and a healthy dose of fatty meat.
It’s hard to know the exact recipe Lagasse’s mother used, but there are more than enough good caldo verde soup iterations to go around. This Portuguese kale soup is a delight and it contains similar ingredients to what Emeril is talking about. Given its hearty nature and warm broth, this recipe is ideal for getting through the next few months of cold weather. And if you’re worried about having to embark on a project only a decorated professional chef like Emeril can pull off, don’t fret. This is a simple soup that can be ready in 35 minutes.
Portuguese Roast Pork And Clams
Clams with pork and sauce on a plate – lhmfoto/Shutterstock
It seems that Emeril Lagasse learned a lot from his mother in the kitchen, because in an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, Lagasse names several dishes of hers that he still loves to cook. One of them is her Portuguese roast pork with clams, where he marinates the pork in a smoky paprika dry rub before roasting it slowly over aromatics, white wine, and herbs. He then adds the fresh clams towards the end, so as not to overcook them into chewy gobs.
This dish also reflects Lagasse’s love of seafood. As he told Tasting Table in the interview, “Anything with seafood and fish, I’m there. Sign me up.” Indeed, he boasts a wide range of delicious seafood recipes in his repertoire, both in his restaurants and in meals he says he cooks at home. For instance, one of the most popular dishes on a Lagasse restaurant menu is the barbecue shrimp, a classic New Orleans style dish available at Emeril’s, Delmonico Steakhouse, and Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House.
Homemade Pasta
Spread of different homemade pastas – Maren Caruso/Getty Images
Those of you who have tried homemade pasta before, know that there is a big difference between this food and a regular-store bought box of pasta. It even exceeds fresh pasta you can buy in the refrigerated aisles. There’s just something wholesome and tasty about the stuff, even though it’s made with the same, basic ingredients of flour, water, and sometimes eggs.
So it is no small matter when Emeril Lagasse says homemade pasta is one of his favorite foods, as he did in an exclusive interview with Tasting Table. More specifically, he told us he has “this really simple little pasta machine that I’m using right now, [to] just crank out a bunch of different pastas in all different shapes.” But that’s not to say he doesn’t also like the boxed stuff, as long as he can play around with the toppings, explaining, “I always find myself going back to the dry pasta too, because this is something that from growing up — [I’m] used to that dry pasta thing, particularly rigatoni, spicy rigatoni.”
Frozen Zapp’s Potato Chips
Bags of Zapp’s potato chips on a shelf – 010110010101101/Shutterstock
Just because Emeril Lagasse is a sophisticated chef with a sophisticated palate, doesn’t mean he can’t have a guilty pleasure. That guilty pleasure comes in the form of Zapp’s potato chips, rigorously frozen. That’s because, as he told Grub Street, “it’s something that freezing them does. It coagulates the peanut oil or something.” Whatever may or may not be happening on a chemical level, the resulting taste is undeniable, and that’s what Lagasse loves about them.
Although Lagasse has professed his love for all manner of potato chips from a young age, Zapp’s potato chips, a product native to Lagasse’s adoptive state of Louisiana, are kettle cooked, which makes them especially thin and crispy. This may also be what makes them an ideal addition to Lagasse’s deviled eggs. Just crush them up and sprinkle them on top of the eggs for extra flavor and crunch. For added flare, serve the deviled eggs on a bed of crushed Zapp’s potato chips.
Swedish Meatballs
Swedish meatballs in a pot – Vladislav Chusov/Shutterstock
Emeril Lagasse is known, in part, for his larger than life personality, accentuated by the occasion “BAM!” and “Take it up a notch” exclamations uttered on his various cooking shows over the years. So it should come as no surprise that he is also a big fan of gravy, a food that is synonymous with kicking a dish into higher gear. Indeed, as he told the Travel Addict, his guilty food pleasure is “anything with a good gravy. The kind that sticks to your ribs.”
In particular, he mentioned making Swedish meatballs, which he then proceeded to eat “for three meals–over rice with steamed broccoli, over some warm buttery egg noodles, and then the grand finale: a meatball sandwich on toasty French bread with some melted provolone. While Lagasse has his own recipe for this dish, it was likely to have been influenced by chef Marcus Samuelsson, a friend with whom he has traveled to Sweden — in fact, Samuelsson grew up in the Nordic country. Incidentally, Samuelsson has a pretty good Swedish meatball recipe, inspired by his grandmother Helga.
Pho
Bowl of pho – Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Emeril Lagasse, of Massachusetts roots, Portuguese extraction, and New Orleans creole adoption doesn’t stop with those three cuisines when it comes to world flavors. He is also a big fan of Vietnamese food, and told Bravotv that he is “a huge soup guy, so pho is always my go-to dish.” He further specified that his “favorite place is Pho Tau Bay on the West Bank. It’s a really unassuming place, but once you walk in, you know it’s the real deal,” referring to a restaurant in New Orleans.
Lagasse also includes pho flavors in several of his recipes, where he fashions it into a beef noodle soup or a beef brisket for the slow cooker. But if you’ve never tried pho before and want to start with something simple, consider our easy chicken pho recipe. It’s a deliciously warming dish for the colder months, and it only takes 30 minutes to prepare.
Banh Mi
Banh Mi on a baguette – Friendly Studios/Shutterstock
Another Vietnamese favorite of Emeril Lagasse’s is the Bahn Mi sandwich. He makes his own lemongrass chicken version, which is worth a try, and is also known to have combined traditional New Orleans foods with Vietnamese cuisine in the epitome of a fusion sandwich: a grilled pork po’boy with Vietnamese style mayonnaise.
If all of that sounds out of your culinary range, the best thing to do is to try our simple Banh Mi sandwich recipe. Once you start making it, you may realize why a chef like Lagasse, a dedicated New Orleans transplant, loves it so much. Both Vietnamese and New Orleans foods have been heavily influenced by French cuisine. For instance, in the former case, Banh Mis are typically served on French baguettes, while in the latter case, roux, a culinary base made with flour and fat that was invented by the French, is often used as a base for gumbo.
Reindeer Heart
Reindeer in the wilderness – Johnny Johnson/Getty Images
Sometimes a good chef will throw you a curve-ball — very often, it is their consummate curiosity for trying new things and openness to new and unusual flavors that makes them successful chefs in the first place. In the case of Emeril Lagasse, the curve-ball might be the fact that reindeer heart is one of his favorite foods–despite the fact that he is not from the north pole, is not Santa Claus (we think), and much of his time cooking in the mostly warm climate of Louisiana.
Yet, as he told Business Insider, upon trying reindeer heart on a trip to Stockholm, he found it to be “incredibly delicious, and the restaurant has no electricity, so everything was cooked using wood, fire, and smoke.” The restaurant in question was Ekstedt, an elevated eatery known for preparing a number of dishes in its wood-fired oven. But if you head to this restaurant hoping to try reindeer heart, be aware that the menu changes seasonally, so be sure to check with the restaurant when they might be likely to serve this delicacy again.
Roast Chicken
Whole roast chicken on a plate – Viktoriia Drobot/Getty Images
A good roast chicken is hard to beat, especially if Emeril Lagasse is the one cooking it. He may think so too, since he told ABC News that roast chicken is his favorite meal to cook for his family, noting that “it’s simple food. There’s nothing wrong with just a perfect roast chicken with roasted vegetables.”
Many people remain intimidated by the process of roasting a whole chicken at home, yet there is no reason for even the most amateur of cooks to worry. While a classic roast chicken will take a little over an hour to cook through, the preparation takes about 15 minutes and is very simple, requiring little more than a bit of rubbing of oils and seasoning on the bird and inserting a few aromatics into the cavity. Once you can do that, you can make the recipe as complicated as you like, adding roasted vegetables, of course, but also potatoes, interesting spice rubs, and more.
Eggs And Bacon
Fried eggs and bacon on a plate – Oksana Mizina/Shutterstock
Emeril Lagasse told ABC News that his “favorite breakfast is eggs with bacon with whole wheat toast with fresh orange juice and fruit. That would be the perfect thing.” And that’s how we know the famous chef is just like the rest of us. That said, he didn’t tell the outlet exactly how he makes them, so for all we know, he might prepare some fancy highfalutin version that is a far cry from the average bacon and eggs breakfast.
Whatever the case, the preparation style of eggs and bacon is typically a very personal choice, and as long as you’re working with good ingredients, you will no doubt be able to come up with something great. For example, there is this cheesy bacon and eggs recipe, which is more of a casserole and also includes vegetables. Or you could take a more practical route and fashion your bacon into handy cups, which you can then use to serve your poached eggs.
Pasta With Truffles
Plate of pasta with shaved truffles – OlgaBombologna/Shutterstock
You can tell a lot about a person when you ask them what their last meal might be. They might reveal a penchant for bacchanalia or a preference of the simple, comforting pleasures in life. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Emeril Lagasse gave us a bit of both when he said, “probably a simple pasta with truffles and a lot of great wine and a martini.”
While we don’t know exactly how Lagasse would want this last meal of his, we can extrapolate. First of all, we know that Lagasse likes fresh homemade pasta. Second, we have a great classic truffle cream sauce recipe that goes nicely over tagliatelle. This one contains a nice mixture of onions, butter, garlic, Parmesan, and cream topped with a generous shaving of fresh black truffle. If you get to decide when your last hour is, and this is the dish you want, make sure it’s truffle season, which falls in the colder months starting around October.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.
