TASTY ROOTS Emeril Lagasse–One of Us? Ayuh, It's True–And He's Not

TASTY ROOTS emeril lagasse–one of us? ayuh, it’s true–and he’s not alone. louisiana’s best Cajun chefs have acadia in their roots–and on their plates. Acadia’s by robert WitkoWski meril Lagasse doesn’t just fill the doorway of his St. Louis Street restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans–he’s also standing at the very threshold of the place in contemporary cuisine where Acadia meets Cajun. And there it is–“BAM!”–the realization that the very word Cajun de- Erives from Acadian, as in the 18th-century French colonists romanti- cized in Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline, who were forced by the CajunsCajunsBritish to leave this neck of the woods as exiles during “Le Grand Dérangement.” Many of them settled in the New Orleans area. Get where we’re going with this? The internationally celebrated Ca- jun cuisine that pan-blackened the 1980s and continues to add zest to the 21st century traces its roots directly to, well, us (not like we’re try- ing to take credit for it or anything). Emeril even touts his restaurants’ sensational offer- ings as “true Acadian [remember Acadia National Park?] cuisine–a more refined ‘city version’ of the rustic Acadian cooking found in the rural settle- ments in Louisiana,” and before that, Maine and At- lantic Canada. Born in Massachusetts and a former head chef at Sher- aton Inn’s Seasons restaurant across the street from the 5 8 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine Acadia’s “We“We use live Maine lobster and make i sk ow K our own fresh pastapasta…Talk…talk about berg; robert wit S Kru a marriage made in S nder a heaven!” ion/ heaven!” S –-emeril lagasse onCalamia; ion televi r e/ S omeba From left: Emeril Lagasse’s Piri Piri h S Pasta with clams, mussels, shrimp, and oysters with piri piri sauce and meril’ e chorizo over fettuccini; Emeril in front of NOLA, his restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans, specializing from left: in “true Acadian cuisine.” Summerguide 2 0 1 0 5 9 TASTY ROOTS Before he was he was Twenty-one-year-old executive chef Emeril Lagasse with his staff at Sherarton Inn’s Emeril’s Shrimp & Grits blends one of us! Seasons restaurant in South Portland, 1980. the familiar with the sublime. hen he said, ‘BAM!‘ I said, ‘Oh, God! That’s Emeril!’” laughs Fern Genest, 76, re- membering the first time she saw emeril John lagasse III on television. “It Maine Mall in South Portland, Emeril chan- was his mannerisms in the kitchen. Something was always going on.” nels New England whenever he cooks his fa- He was no longer the slim 21-year-old who came into her employ by vorite variation on Maine lobster, deftly landing a job at a hotel near the Portland Jetport, back when he was beneath the radar of mingling it with Cajun flair and another celebrity and far from the glaring spotlight of fame–back when he was one of us. He was richly flavored tale of immigration from now Emeril®. “I inherited him when [Dunfey Hotels] sent Emeril to us in late 1980. He had been sous our shores. As he tells us: chef at the Parker House in Boston,” says Genest, former general manager of the South “[Although my father’s heritage is Portland Sheraton Inn (currently Wyndham Portland Airport Hotel). “[His arrival] didn’t French-Canadian], Piri Piri Pasta’s a dish I get nearly the fanfare he deserved. He came when we changed the restaurant to Seasons– created in honor of my mom, Hilda, who he was part of that change. The menu had a lot of seafood creations, and in Maine, people is a great cook. She was the first person to expected heavy seafood.” show me how to cook at a young age. She The May 1981 issue of Business Digest chimed in with stock hyperbole: “The restaurant grew up in a Portuguese family and loves and lounge have a new look, new menu, and new name…new executive chef Emeril La- the spicy piri piri sauce. This dish was created gasse has created a menu of traditional cuisine with seasonal specialties…Seasons, which for my restaurant…We use live Maine lobster will reflect the seasons of New England, will be a hit here.” and make our own fresh pasta…talk about a “He was very low key, very serious about cooking, but fun–he liked to joke around. The marriage made in heaven!” staff loved him.” Approaching the kitchen, “I’d always hear all this noise–and then I’d walk in and it was like, ‘Mom’s home!’ It would go quiet; everything stopped.” BLACKENED MAGIC Genest also saw Emeril’s innovations raise the culinary experience at the Sheraton in the finest details. “It was his idea to take color pictures of the [finished] dishes and hang them If you’re talking about the place where Aca- in the kitchen so everyone knew what they needed to look like. If every [detail] didn’t look dian meets Cajun, Paul Prudhomme knows like the picture, it wasn’t done correctly–it was wrong, and they needed to do it again.” “where you at.” His family’s from up here, “It was his first executive chef position. He was very creative but limited by corporate too, where he visits with kin at “family re- structure–I call it corporate interference. Everything he suggested had to be approved unions every five years or so.” Here, the through our food-and-beverage guidelines. I don’t think he had a lot of control.” family enjoys its Acadian-Cajun heritage, With his wife, Elizabeth, Emeril began raising his family in Portland. Genest remembers, and in his stomping grounds in New Orle- “He went on about his new baby girl! But, he was serious about his job, putting in long ans, Prudhomme is understanding of and hours–he was there all the time.” sensitive to the inclusive nature of the Aca- After her transfer, Genest tried to contact her talented chef and was told, “He’s left and gone to work for Prudhomme [at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans].” Years later, Gen- dian migration to Louisiana, both in food i and people. “The Acadian attitude is all sk est’s daughter Denise, who’d also known Lagasse, insisted her mother watch a new cook- ow K ing show. “I said, ‘I’ll be damned, there he is!’ It’s my about marrying [new] cultures in our fami- granddaughter’s favorite show!” ly–it’s a huge gumbo.” “He was a pistol! I was amazed but not As Prudhomme–the man who invented t; robert wit surprised [he became famous]–he pan-blackening–tells me this, he is holding S had that ‘go for it.’ It was the court on Chartres Street at K-Paul passion he had for cook- when coincidentally a couple from y fern gene ing,” Genest says with an Quebec walks in and tries to catch S almost maternal pride. his eye. Prudhomme tosses a ourte “I am very proud of C quick glance my way and grins, him, but he’s put on too much weight. because everyone this side of Naughty, naughty.” Bourbon Street knows it’s a re- enactment of the original flight of the French from northern Sidebar, from top: 6 0 p o r t l a n d m o n t h l y m a g a z i n e “...thanks almost single-handedly to Solo Bistro, Bath may soon be known as the midcoastmidcoast culinary destination.”Maine Home + Design, March 2008 CREATURE FROM THE BLACKENED LAGOON ComeBorn in a swamp see outside Opelousas, why Prud- everyone Come see homme talks with pride about how his “mother’s side of the family came from why everyone is Acadia”talking during the 18th-century about expulsion.www.solobistro.com Soisl otalking Bistr about Solo Bistro It was at his mother’s skirt that he and his in downtown Bath... siblings learned to cook. “We come from a 380808 infamily downtown that cooks, no doubt about that!” Bath… Winner of Santé As for where the magic Magazine’s Innovative comes from, “[It’s] Culinary Hospitality Award just working. WinnerMy first of Santé Magazine’s Paul Prudhomme’s Lobster Anthony Innovativeprepared with Culinary Maine lobster. Hospitality Award Reservations at www.solobistro.com or (207) 443-3373 Reservations at www.sportlandmag-ns.pdfolobistro .com 1 5/21/10 4:01 PM “seasoning is an Maine and emotion for the maritime Canada to New Orleans in 1755. Maybe person eating it.” that’s why there’s an enormous oak tree in C Cajun Country named Evangeline. –paul prudhomme M The North Star i But is the Acadian-Cajun connection still vibrant sk Y Music Café is a ow and influential? Prudhomme says, “There’s a huge staple in the K amount of travel of people from Canada coming CM Portland community. At MY i here to visit and going north to visit there. Some- sk the Café, you ; robert wit thing that happened 180- to-200 years ago–to keep that CY ow will find local S K alive you have to be into it, and work at it, and keep at art on the walls, CMY lend b it.” He motions toward a steaming plate of slow- local performers on the stage, roasted chicken with shrimp-corn-bread dressing K oning and local food t; robert wit S S and cheddar-cheese sauce.

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