Top 50 Emeril Lagasse Quotes

My favorite Aspen memory is saving an upside-down cake that had exploded from the high altitude.

You go to a restaurant in the States and kids have these game boards at the table. You don’t see that in Italy or Spain. It’s not because they can’t afford to buy them, it’s because that’s not what eating together as a family is about.

Soups are a great way to introduce a lot of vegetables to kids. Stir-fries, too, because they contain so many different shapes and colors.

If somebody has a chance to put my food in their mouth, that tells the story.

Cleanliness is very important. If you let kids make a total mess in the kitchen and then leave, you’re not really teaching them anything.

I’m pretty actively involved with the military because I think they’re incredible human beings. If I can give back to them for what they’re doing for us, it’s a good thing. And I think to have happy soldiers, you need to feed them well.

You know, for 300 years it’s been kind of the same. There are restaurants in New Orleans that the menu hasn’t changed in 125 years, so how is one going to change or evolve the food?

I think all kids need snacks. Mine are fruit machines. I give them things like apple slices, berries and melon. Do I let them eat ice cream? Absolutely. But not every day.

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.

When it ceases to be fun, I’ll stop and just stay in my restaurants.

Growing up in New England, being schooled and classically trained, it needed to shake, it needed to evolve.

When I want to kick it up, I like to add hardwood chips or chunks to the grill; it adds bold smoky flavors. The most common woods are hickory and mesquite, but you can find alder, apple, cherry and, my personal favorite, pecan.

Mom ran the house, so we grew up Portuguese.

Whether it’s books or TV, or whatever the case may be, the backbone of what I do is my restaurants.

You know, in 1975 I couldn’t 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.

When I cook with my son, I might chop vegetables and have fun with different shapes. Cooking is a way to teach kids about other things, like reading or math with all of the weights and measures. There are so many things that are part of cooking that are also very educational.

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

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.

We’re a new show. We can’t afford instant replay.

I was on the board of Andre Agassi’s foundation, and seeing the way it operated blew my mind. In 2002, I told my wife, I want to start a foundation to give back, I want it to be for kids in hard circumstances, and I want it to be culinary-driven, because that’s who I am.

I try to teach my son about sanitation, especially when handling foods like chicken that could be dangerous. I remind him to wash his hands all the time. When my son cooks with me, he stands on a step stool so he can reach the stove. I teach him about safety and fire.

Radishes grow just about anywhere. People think, ‘Oh it’s just a radish.’ But radishes are delicious, and people don’t think of cooking them.

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

If you don’t follow your dream, who will?

My office in New York is overflowing with all kinds of cookbooks, and in New Orleans we have a huge culinary library. So yeah, I guess I’m a little bit obsessed.

I’m working harder than ever now, and I’m 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. That’s my philosophy.

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 we’re going to kick this up a little bit.

My family… always had the value of the family table and these cultural influences of growing up.

I had these recipes that say do this, do that. Who MAKES these rules?

I spent a lot of time on farms when I was young. My uncle and my dad owned a big farm.

You have to be cautious of eating continuously the same thing. Beef comes to mind right away, and there’s nothing wrong with beef, but you’ve got to do whatever you’re doing in moderation. So try to break it up a little bit. Eat some fish or some shellfish at least a couple of times a week.

I ended up turning down a full scholarship of music at the conservatory to pay to go to cooking school.

Kids are now eating things like edamame and sushi. I didn’t know what shiitake mushrooms were when I was 10 – most kids today do.

I think you have to be careful with spices. Kids’ palates can be very delicate, and they might not like things overspiced. In my cookbooks for kids, I do a milder version of my signature spice blend, Emeril’s Essence, called Baby Bam, which has no cayenne pepper.

A lot of parents ask me how to get kids to eat more vegetables. The first thing I say is that it starts from the top.

We’re setting up an urban farm for kids on more than 20 acres in New Orleans. We want to make this a world-class educational center for the community.

The world has changed, and it’s almost been 11 years. I have 975 employees. I have six restaurants. We haven’t opened any new ones in almost three years.

Many of my staff have been with me for over 20 years. I have a great team, and I make sure they feel respected and appreciated.

We began building this incredible new foundation in this restaurant, and that’s what began giving me the left-hand side of tradition and the right-hand side, my new palate.

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.

If you think big, then it’s going to be big.

I think you’ve got to keep it simple, keep it fresh. Stay away from all that processed stuff, read the labels.

I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. My background was modest, and I worked at a Portuguese bakery in town.

I love fresh citrus and always keep lemons, limes, and oranges on hand; they come in handy for spritzing up quickly grilled meats, seafoods, and vegetables, especially when followed up by a quick drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

We’ll be going to the fish market and a farmer’s market this afternoon to get what we need to make and eat dinner as a family. I’m trying to expose my kids to going to a farmers market or the fish market and learning what that’s all about.

Scatter soaked hardwood chunks over your coals for a quick and easy way to add a smoky nuance to your grilled foods.

My inspiration was my mom. She’s 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.

The premise of ‘The Originals’ are places that have been open 50, 60, 75, 100 years or longer that are still doing it right that maybe a lot of people, particularly the younger generations, have not even thought about.

You are going to be what you put in your body, so I try to teach that to my kids, and the kids around me.

I wouldn’t ask any of my employees to do anything I wouldn’t do. And I work as hard, if not harder than the rest of the staff, to set an example. I also believe in giving my employees a lot of room to be creative and to express themselves.