Emeril Lagasse and E.J. Lagasse Are a Father and Son Duo Who Love Butter

Tinfoil Swans Podcast

On this episode

When E.J. Lagasse was just four years old, he made his debut appearance in Food & Wine in a feature called “How to Kick Healthy Cooking Up a Notch.” He wasn’t the one actually making the noodle soup, chicken noodle stir-fry, and apple pie granita (that was his dad Emeril Lagasse) but 17 years later, the father and son are comrades in the kitchen. Most notably at their flagship New Orleans restaurant Emeril’s, where E.J. — and if you just did the math, yes, he’s 21 — runs the kitchen, and at their soon-to-be-opened restaurant 34, which will be a love letter to their Portuguese heritage. Two generations of Lagasse chefs opened up about working together, the unique magic of sno-ball season, and watching people’s faces react to a massive pyramid of butter.

Meet our guests

Emeril Lagasse is a bestselling author, media personality, philanthropist, restaurateur, and chef who has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation as the 1991 Best Chef: New Orleans and 2013 Humanitarian of the Year. He has hosted over 2,000 episodes of television on the Food Network as well as serving as the food correspondent for Good Morning America. He has been nominated and won Emmy Awards for his shows Emeril Cooks, Eat the World With Emeril Lagasse, and Essence of Emeril. In 2002, he established the Emeril Lagasse Foundation to support children’s educational programs related to nutrition and the culinary arts. His restaurant company, The Emeril Group, runs five restaurants throughout New Orleans, Florida, and Las Vegas.

E.J. Lagasse is the restaurateur-chef-patron of the flagship Emeril’s in New Orleans as well as the upcoming restaurant 34, which will celebrate his and his father, Emeril’s, Portuguese heritage. Previously, he attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales and burnished his skills at two different three-Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe. E.J. took over the Emeril’s kitchen at the age of 19.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine’s podcast, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On staying afloat in tough times

“It’s a tough business. So many restaurants open and close. It’s tough for restaurants to stay around. Especially in today’s time, between the labor market, the cost of goods, the cost of rent, insurance. Staffing has probably nearly doubled or close to it. The profit margins are nowhere what they used to be, not that they were great but you gotta dig deep and really love what you’re doing if you want to really survive. But then there’s a lot of things that come with that, not just luck.” — Emeril Lagasse

On a sense of place

“If you are at Le Bernardin at 1:30 on a Thursday, you feel like you are in midtown Manhattan, eating the nicest food you can have with the best service. You know that you are in New York City. It’s bustling, it’s like the city, kinda noisy but in a great way. Something that Eric Ripert and I talked about when I was planning the renovation for Emeril’s: ‘Make sure that when people sit down, they know they are in New Orleans.’ The dining room itself is quite contemporary, but there’s still the brick, you know. We utilized other bits and pieces of décor and the music to really make it feel like New Orleans.” — E.J. Lagasse

On high expectations

“I really have tried over the years — because I was maybe not as nice in the beginning days and that’s just the way that I was trained — but I try to understand people for who they are. I don’t want to treat people any way differently than I want to be treated. I don’t want to expect anybody to do anything that I wouldn’t do, whether it’s picking up a piece of paper or polishing a piece of silverware.  My expectations are high, but I also think that I’m fair, and I try to understand their culture. But they also have to understand what it is for us, and that it takes a soldier to really want to be in this environment that we’ve created. And to want to do that and to sacrifice what we have to do.” — Emeril Lagasse

On the butter mountain

“I don’t know man, nobody in the States does butter like the Europeans. So I went to my local cheese importers, this place called St. James Cheese Company, and was like, ‘Hey, I need French butter.’ We got an import license to be able to have the butter here. So it’s Lyonnaise butter, Beurre de Baratte, from Lyon. And we have an import license to have it here in New Orleans. It is the best butter, and everybody talks about the butter when they come eat. You walk in and there’s just this pyramid of butter.” — E.J. Lagasse

“When it comes to the table, it’s like, ‘What are they gonna do with that?’ And then they take the spoon and do a perfect, nice roll with the butter. I want great butter. It makes the meal.” — Emeril Lagasse

“He was in the restaurant the other day and there’s a massive piece of glass, so we can see the dining room. And we’re turned around and I just kinda tapped him on the shoulder and was like, ‘Look at the table.’ And this lady’s face when the butter was getting rolled — she just started dying laughing. It was so good.” — E.J. Lagasse

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Daniel Boulud, Rodney Scott, Asma Khan, Emeril and EJ Lagasse, Claudia Fleming, Dave Beran, Dan Giusti, Priya Krishna, Lee Anne Wong, Cody Rigsby, Kevin Gillespie and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.