About Emeril
Emeril Lagasse is an Emmy-winning television personality, the chef and proprietor of several restaurants, a cookbook author, and a philanthropist. He is a James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine which inspired the development of his "New, New Orleans" style.
Chef Emeril is most notable for having appeared on a wide variety of cooking TV shows, including the long-running and highly rated Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril, and most recently, Amazon’s original series Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse.
Timeline
1978
Lagasse graduated from the culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in 1978 and became executive chef at the Dunfey's Hyannis Resort in 1979. He was nominated as Chef of the Year in 1983.
1982
In 1982, Lagasse succeeded Paul Prudhomme as executive chef of Commander's Palace in New Orleans under Richard Brennan, Sr. He led the kitchen there for seven and a half years before leaving to open his own restaurant.
1990
In 1990, he opened Emeril's in New Orleans. It was designated "Restaurant of the Year" in Esquire magazine that year and has been a recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award since 1999. Many of his restaurants, as well as his corporate office, Emeril's Homebase, are located in New Orleans.
2006
In August 2006, Lagasse contributed several recipes to the meal selection aboard the International Space Station, as part of a general NASA effort to improve the quality of the food supply for astronauts. Lagasse's cuisine in particular was selected in the hopes that the spicier fare would offset the reported tendency of microgravity to deaden flavors.
2022
In December 2022, Lagasse was named as the Chief Culinary Officer for Carnival Cruise Lines, which announced he would collaborate extensively on Carnival's fleetwide menu.
2025
Lagasse's restaurant company, The Emeril Group, is located in New Orleans and houses restaurant operations, a culinary test kitchen for cookbook and recipe development, and a boutique store for his signature products. As of 2025, his company owns nine restaurants.