Hoenig Pam - Essential Emeril: favorite recipes and hard-won wisdom from a life in the kitchen

Ess e ntial Em e ril

Ess e ntial Em e ril

FAVORITE RECIPES AND HARD-WON WISDOM FROM A LIFE IN THE KITCHEN

Emeril Lagasse

with Pam Hoenig

2015 by Emeril Lagasse dba MSLO Acquisition sub, LLC

Design and Photography 2015 by Time Inc. Books
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, excepting brief quotations in connection with reviews written specifically for inclusion in magazines or newspapers, or limited excerpts strictly for personal use.

Editorial Director: Anja Schmidt
Senior Editor: Erica Sanders-Foege
Writer: Pam Hoenig
Assistant Managing Editor: Jeanne de Lathouder
Assistant Project Editor: Megan Thompson Brown
Creative Director: Felicity Keane
Art Director: Christopher Rhoads
Junior Designer: AnnaMaria Jacob
Executive Photography Director: Iain Bagwell
Photo Editor: Kellie Lindsey
Cover Photography: Quentin Bacon
Photographers: Cedric Angeles, Becky Luigart-Stayner
Senior Photo Stylist: Mindi Shapiro Levine
Food Stylists: Nathan Carrabba, Victoria E. Cox
Prop Stylist: Mary Clayton Carl
Test Kitchen Manager: Alyson Moreland Haynes
Senior Production Manager: Greg A. Amason
Production Manager: Theresa Beste-Farley
Assistant Production Manager: Diane Rose Keener
Assistant Production Director: Sue Chodakiewicz
Copy Editors: Donna Baldone, Julie Bosche
Indexer: Mary Ann Laurens
Editorial Fellows: Kylie Dazzo, Dree Deacon, Nicole Fisher

Photography Credits: Jim Cooper/AP Photo: ;
Courtesy of author: ;
David Moir/Bravo/NBCUniversal/Getty Images:

Page numbers refer to the print version

ISBN-13: 978-0-8487-4666-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944368

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Printing 2015

in memory of

charli e trott e r

friend

colleague

brother

passionate explorer

scholar

perfectionist

genius

missed

contents

introduction

My very earliest food memoryI was probably about eight years oldis of picking vegetables in my familys garden, and then getting up on a step stool so I could reach the kitchen counter, and my mom teaching me how to make vegetable soup. That first time I made it, it was OK, but every time I made it after that, as I gained confidence and a better understanding of what was going on in the pot, the soup got better. My appreciation of the importance of quality ingredients and simple preparations started with that vegetable soup. Its this lifelong journey of discovery and enjoyment in the kitchen that I want to share with you in Essential Emeril .

Growing up in Fall River, Massachusetts, I was a percussionist in a Portuguese band and most every weekend, particularly during the summer, we would travel to festivals throughout New England and as far north as Toronto to play. A big part of any Portuguese festival is the food caldo verde , sno-cones, meat on a stick cooked over an open fire, the Portuguese doughnuts called malassadas and thinking back on those days conjures up the memory of delicious tastes and aromas, intertwined with the crowds of festival-goers who were there to enjoy the food, music, and other events. From the very beginning, Ive connected food with happy people and good music.

My first job in the food world, at age ten, was working in a local Portuguese bakery, washing pots and pans. I was totally intrigued by baking and pastries, and it was my good fortune that the old Portuguese bakers took a liking to me and over time they taught me the basicsbrownies, lemon tarts, sweet bread. At a certain point, I stopped washing pots and started working alongside them. I even got interested in cake decorating. That was something the bakers didnt dothe bakery would have special people come in to decorate the cakes. I signed up for a cake decorating course at the local community college even though I was younger than the minimum age requirement by quite a few years. I lied about my age on my application, thankfully got in anyway, and got an education on proper icing techniques. I also learned how to handle a pastry bag to create rosettes and all sorts of other embellishments with frosting and whipped cream.

When I got to be high school age, I decided to apply to a vocational high school that had culinary arts, and spent my high school years learning about cooking and working in different restaurants: Chinese, seafood, ay pizzeriano matter what it was, there was something to learn, from stir-frying to stretching pizza dough by hand (forget a rolling pin!). Youll find recipes in this collection whose creation was sparked by those flavor memories and kitchen experiences.

Everything I did, I enjoyed, and one day I woke up and thought, I really love this. Thats when I decided to attend the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University instead of going to the New England Conservatory of Music, which had offered me a full scholarship for percussion.

After I graduated from Johnson & Wales, I was hired by Dunfey Hotels as an executive chef for their restaurant Seasons. The general manager of Dunfey, Philip Georges, was an incredible mentor, and I moved with him to various Dunfey properties in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Maine; New York City; Boston (where I first met and cooked for ); and Cape Cod.

While I was working in Cape Cod, I came to the attention of the Brennan family, who were vacationing there. They must have enjoyed their food, because a few months later, I was invited to apply for the position of executive chef at Commanders Palace in New Orleans, most recently vacated by Paul Prudhomme, who had left to open his own restaurant, K-Pauls.

There is so much to learn about cookingso many different cuisines, cultures, and ingredients. If you can understand a culture, then you understand the food. If you can understand the food, you understand the people.

It was a long interview process and an interesting one. Miss Ella and I would have phone dates, and she asked me questions that got me thinking even more deeply about my cooking. She would ask me:

What have you been cooking over the past week?

Were the dishes successful?

How did you come up with those ideas?

Were you thinking about wines to pair when you developed those dishes?

When I went down to Commanders for the final interview, I never left. I knew I had big shoes to fill, and I took that challenge very seriously. I immersed myself in the city of New Orleans, and I spent my days off out in the country, meeting farmers and fishermen, learning about local ingredients, and finding local sources for everything we needed at the restaurant. Everything was cooked freshnothing canned, nothing frozen.

To this day, I am grateful to Ella and Dick Brennan for the opportunity they gave me. They made me feel like a member of their family, and they gave me room to grow as a chef. They were amazing mentors, people, and restaurateurs who molded me into what I am today.

From Dick I learned to taste. Dick would say, even if youve made a dish a thousand times, taste it before service and youll save yourself a lot of heartache, as youll have time to make adjustments if somethings not working right. Dick is all about teaching and loves to use sports lingo that reflects thathe is always talking about teamwork and preparing for the game.