Quotes by

Emeril Lagasse

I cant tell you enough about cinnamon. Cinnamon is an awesome spice to use and it goes great with something like apples in the morning or in a mixture of fruit or in your oatmeal or even in your cereal. – Emeril Lagasse

My food is Louisiana, New Orleans-based, well-seasoned, rustic. I think its pretty unique because of my background being influenced by my mom, Portuguese and French Canadian. Theres a lot going on there. – Emeril Lagasse

Music is one of those things that is constantly going in my head all the time. Its sort of like the evolution and creation of doing food, or my philosophy about wine. Its always beating in my head, so it keeps the spirit moving. – Emeril Lagasse

Ive always done food that can work in a set time frame. The message Im trying to get across is, it doesnt have to take three days to do this. With planning, you can do a lot and really have quality food every day. – Emeril Lagasse

Those other 10 oclock shows that come on, all you get from them is headaches and nightmares when you go to bed! At least we give you food, know what I mean? – Emeril Lagasse

My Food Network shows, Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril, are not in production right now, but I wouldnt say that Im necessarily leaving Food Network. I have a lot of television still in me. I enjoy teaching people, so its just a matter of time before I do something new. – Emeril Lagasse

Being a food show and being me, I always kicked it up a notch, which means I would always elevate the spice level or the complexity of a particular dish. So, it was always like were going to kick this up a little bit. – Emeril Lagasse

My philosophy from day one is that I can sleep better at night if I can improve an individuals knowledge about food and wine, and do it on a daily basis. – Emeril Lagasse

Im working harder than ever now, and Im putting on my pants the same as I always have. I just get up every day and try to do a little better than the day before, and that is to run a great restaurant with great food, great wine, and great service. Thats my philosophy. – Emeril Lagasse

Well be going to the fish market and a farmers market this afternoon to get what we need to make and eat dinner as a family. Im trying to expose my kids to going to a farmers market or the fish market and learning what thats all about. – Emeril Lagasse

You go to a restaurant in the States and kids have these game boards at the table. You dont see that in Italy or Spain. Its not because they cant afford to buy them, its because thats not what eating together as a family is about. – Emeril Lagasse

You know, in 1975 I couldnt get a job in New York City because I was American. The kitchens were predominantly run by French, Swiss, German, and basically I got laughed at. I had education, I had experience, but got laughed at because I was American. – Emeril Lagasse

The cool thing is that now that people have made this evolution where cooking is cool, people are doing it on weekends, theyre doing their own challenges. Its back to cooking. And its real cooking. – Emeril Lagasse

You know, for 300 years its been kind of the same. There are restaurants in New Orleans that the menu hasnt changed in 125 years, so how is one going to change or evolve the food? – Emeril Lagasse

My inspiration was my mom. Shes a great cook, and she still cooks, and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community, food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that. – Emeril Lagasse

I started cooking when I was about 10. I have memories like when I was 6 or 7 with my mom, and when I was 12 I started getting real serious about cooking. – Emeril Lagasse

Mom ran the house, so we grew up Portuguese. – Emeril Lagasse

Home base is the support system where we have a culinary team, my own writers because of the shows and the books and stuff, we have a culinary team of about six people. Marketing, public relations, accounting and all that sort of stuff. – Emeril Lagasse

I launched The Emeril Lagasse Foundation to provide culinary training, and developmental and educational programs to children in the cities where my restaurants operate. I think everyone has a responsibility to give back to the community if they can, and to help future generations learn new skills. – Emeril Lagasse

I guess I feel that I was following my instincts, and at the same time being guided by the best. I became totally intrigued with Louisiana – the people, the food. It is a part of my life. Everything that has happened for me since moving here has just been icing on the cake. – Emeril Lagasse