| Emeril Lagasse was born of a French Canadian father | | | | the restaurant was an immediate hit with both critics |
| and Portuguese mother on Oct. 15, 1959 in Fall River | | | | and patrons; it was named the Best New Restaurant |
| Massachusetts. When he was a teenager in a shirt | | | | by Esquire magazine. Two years later Emeril opened |
| uniform working for a Portuguese bakery, he began to | | | | his second restaurant, NOLA (for New Orleans, LA), |
| show interest in baking and cooking. When he was 14 | | | | which featured rustic cuisine in ornate décor |
| years old he enrolled in a culinary arts program at the | | | | and was also a huge hit in the New Orleans gourmet |
| local vocational high school, where he also joined the | | | | community. In 1993 Emeril published Emeril's New New |
| school band as a percussionist, playing on the side at | | | | Orleans Cooking, which introduced his unique style of |
| local banquets, dances, and religious festivals. When he | | | | Creole cookery and became a bestseller. |
| graduated from high school, Emeril was offered full | | | | Cable TV's Food Network became interested and |
| scholarship to the prestigious New England | | | | invited Emeril to try out. His first two programs, Emeril |
| Conservatory of Music; however, he decided instead | | | | & Friends and How to Boil Water, were not |
| to follow the career of professional chef. He enrolled in | | | | successful; but the 1995 show Essence of Emeril was |
| Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, working | | | | a big hit with viewers. Time magazine called the show |
| in a local restaurant in order to pay his tuition. At this | | | | one of the ten best shows on TV. Emeril's unique |
| restaurant he met another student named Elizabeth | | | | cooking and style, and his dramatic flair, made his next |
| Kief, whom he married after his graduation in fall 1978. | | | | television project, Emeril Live! (which featured a four |
| Emeril traveled to France to polish his skill, working in | | | | member band and live studio audience) a smash hit |
| Paris and Lyon before returning to the U.S. He spent | | | | and catapulted Emeril into a celebrity which very few |
| the next years working in some of the Northeast's | | | | chefs ever realize. The Food Network took Emeril |
| finest restaurants. | | | | Live! on tour across the country, where arena sized |
| In 1982 Emeril put on a chef shirt as executive chef at | | | | crowds showed up to cheer Emeril on. In the Las |
| the world-renowned Commander's Palace restaurant | | | | Vegas episode a young couple took their marriage |
| in New Orleans. Having to work eighteen hours or | | | | vows while Emeril served as best man in chef apparel. |
| more a day strained his marriage; he was divorced in | | | | Although viewers loved Emeril, some culinary critics |
| 1988. After working for over seven years at the | | | | denounced his theatricalism, calling him flamboyant and |
| Commander's Palace, Emeril opened his own | | | | lacking in substance. But in 2003 the Food Network |
| restaurant, Emeril's, in New Orlean's warehouse district | | | | signed Emeril to a multi-million dollar, five year deal for |
| in 1990. Emeril's menu was a fusion of French, | | | | ninety new episodes yearly. |
| Caribbean, Spanish, Portuguese and Asian cuisine, and | | | | |