Emeril says New Orleans is one of America’s greatest cities

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Few names are as closely tied with New Orleanian cuisine as that of Emeril Lagasse, the colorful chef whose big personality and piquant Cajun- and Creole-inflected food catapulted him to small-screen fame more than two decades ago.

But before hosting his first cooking show in 1994, Essence ofEmeril, and before coining his iconic catchphrase “BAM!,” Emeril opened an eponymous eatery in New Orleans that would become the flagship of his restaurant empire. Now, more than 25 years since Emeril’s opened its doors and a decade after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, Lagasse believes the New Orleans dining scene is stronger and more vibrant than ever.

Below, the chef chats with Yahoo Food about his memories of the storm, how New Orleans’s struggles have counterintuitively sparked a culinary renaissance, and about his still-under-wraps plans to open a new restaurant just down the street.

Yahoo Food: Aug. 29 marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. How are you, your restaurants, and the NOLA food scene doing poststorm?

Emeril Lagasse: We, as a restaurant group, we’re great. We have continued to slowly keep growing, and the city is continually, very positively moving forward. I think that the Louisiana Tourism Commission, the tourism board, and the Convention Center Bureau folks have done a heck of a job working really, really hard making the city visible again. And the food scene in New Orleans? It’s kind of scary because it’s grown so much. It’s grown, what 50 percent? There are all these little boutique-y and chef-owned restaurants now. It’s amazing what’s going on.

Your flagship restaurant, Emeril, just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Congrats! A lot has happened in that time — what were the major turning points?

We just celebrated [the restaurant’s anniversary] this past March, and it’s a really big deal not just for the city but for us. A lot has happened since its inception, when I really fell in love with the Warehouse District [where Emeril’s is located] 20-some years ago. There weren’t many streetlights back then. It was a pretty big risk, but I felt very strong that this was going to turn into a great neighborhood, and it is.

At the restaurant, a lot has happened, and I like to think that even with Katrina, it’s positive. There’s been so many turning points in the history of the restaurant, between Super Bowls and hurricanes and storms and [the BP oil refinery explosion]. I could go on and on and on. I like to look at these things very positively…. It’s kind of just one of those things, you know? You have storms, living there. I think that post-Katrina, it took time — it took a little bit to get the glue back and get the dance back in our step, but we’re blessed.

I’m proud of the city. I’m proud of the people. I’m proud of how people just came out and put their game faces back on and did whatever it took to make it a great place again. This is one of the greatest cities in America.

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