E.J. Lagasse On Food, Football And Family Legacies

The sports world is making a big fuss about 20-time NBA All-Star LeBron James playing on the same team as his 20-year-old son, Bronny. And while seeing a father and his child on the basketball court together is incredibly cool, we don't know if it's any more impressive than watching a dad and his son simultaneously making a pot of lobster gumbo in a heralded New Orleans restaurant.

E.J. Lagasse is the son of Emeril Lagasse, one of America's first true celebrity chefs. Since opening his eponymous Big Easy restaurant back in 1990, the elder Lagasse has baked, basted and "Bammed!" his way into the hearts (and stomachs) of the world. Like Bronny, E.J. could have easily gone another way with his career, but the aroma of flambéed filet mignon proved too strong to ignore.

Working in kitchens since he was 13, the formally trained E.J., now a grizzled 21, has not only taken the helm at Emeril's , but he's also just opened a second restaurant, 34 , a nod to the Lagasse's proud Portuguese roots. In the following interview, the wunderkind son of a culinary legend talks about running the family business, being inspired by other artists and making big plans for the upcoming NOLA Super Bowl.

I noticed on your social media that you all recently took a break from the restaurant for a couple of weeks. Why is that kind of thing important for you and the team?

It keeps everybody energized. I think that restaurants in general are pretty fast-paced, but when you get into fine dining and things like that where you're doing these set menus and tasting menus, the services get quite long. Those guests are there for two and a half to three and a half hours. So, if you have a table that sits down at 10:30 p.m., you're going to be cooking late. And we do deep cleanings [after service].

You get in the swing of things and it's a great routine. But you look up and you've done 40 weeks of that straight and it's like, "All right, everybody's a little bit tired." Yeah, so I'm big on letting the staff take a breather on Sundays and Mondays. But for that two weeks [straight] that we can take off when it's really hot out in New Orleans, people can go outside and do whatever they want to do. They can travel and see family. That two weeks are refreshing and super important for everybody.

Since taking the reins of the restaurant from your father, what have been some of the biggest obstacles?

It's almost been three years now, which is wild. It's gone by really quickly. But then sometimes it's also been like, "Wow, this going pretty slow." People say that life moves pretty quickly when you're in a routine. But the challenges for me have been sort of everyday [obstacles]. It's just really finding out, with the great team that I have and all the amazing people that we have surrounding us in the restaurant, how can we attack any issue that pops up every day? Sometimes those issues aren't like problem solving; it's more creative. It's almost like developing new philosophies and different techniques to do things. And I don't mean that in just a culinary sense.

I think it also bleeds through in how we take care of the guests and things like that. Is there a way that we can move a tray through the dining room that's more seamless? Can we add more songs to so that the playlist is a little bit extended so that when you do have people that spend a few hours in the restaurant, they're not hearing any of the same songs? All of those little details. So, the challenges for me on a day-to-day basis have been really fun.

We keep evolving. That was something that my dad and I had come out and said really early to our team: "Hey, we don't want to get to a place where we're doing the same thing for the next 30 years, right? We've been around 34 years, and we want to be continually evolving for the next 34." The challenge is [to be] continually evolving, but it's also the most fun part of the job.

In terms of evolution, is that where the new restaurant comes in?

We've been working on 34 for a number of years now. It was a pre-COVID idea. Construction started almost two years ago, so it's been a really long process for that. It's a lot of the same thoughts that we have about dining and the standards of executing service from a front-of-house and a back-of-house standpoint and taking those standards over to the new restaurant, which is a little bit more of a casual setting than Emeril's.

But we also want it to be really fun. If you're doing this meal [at Emeril's] and you're nine courses in, hopefully, it's going very well at that point. And then a Jimi Hendrix song comes on that kind of breaks up a little bit of that [monotony]. You don't want it to feel stuffy. That was one of the ways that we figured out at Emeril's to keep it from feeling stuffy was through the music.

So, at 34, it's a lot of the same. It's going to be a kind of late-night crowd over there. It'll be dining that is fun and approachable, but you'll have a great time while you're doing it. My dad had a cookbook in the early 2000s called Every Day's a Party. I think that's been the philosophy for 34.

What kind of role does music play in your kitchen?

I mean, look, we're in New Orleans, right? What a role music plays in New Orleans. The sound system in the dining room is great for the guests. But for us, I have speakers built into the ceilings in the kitchen. And normally, [music plays] during prep. We don't really play music during service in the kitchen just because we have to listen. I'm a big proponent, as well as the whole team is, that you got to hear something cooking in a pan. But in the daytime, we'll let anybody throw a playlist on if they have something they want to listen to. We kind of take a quick team vote. Everybody's in the kitchen and it's like, "All right, what do you guys want to listen to?" And somebody's like, "I've got this ridiculous playlist that I want to play right now." Okay, great. Connect it.

Outside of cooking, what are some things you and your dad love doing together?

Eating. That's probably No. 2. We love to eat out together. That's a lot of my formative memories as a kid and a lot of what got me into loving restaurants in general. I adore food, but what I really enjoy about restaurants [are the memories]. They were memories that I had with my dad when I was younger, going out to eat somewhere. [Eating out] also helps us stay fresh and be inspired by what's going on around us in terms of what we do for a living.

We'll also go to a jazz bar and listen to music. We love that.

But we're in New Orleans, so we're massive Saints fans. We love going to the games. I'm sure we'll magically appear at a couple this season. It's something we call each other about on the weekends when the restaurant's closed. We'll be like, "Oh my God, did you see that?"

Speaking of football, the Super Bowl is coming to New Orleans in February. Have you already talked about what kind of presence the restaurants are going to have for it?

I think I've annoyed my dad a little bit because I'm in the process where I'm like, "How many parties can we throw on a weekend?" Let's go! We can throw a hundred parties in a weekend. I have a lot of friends that are either in the restaurant industry or are nightclub based. Everybody's coming to New Orleans. A lot of musician friends of mine are coming to New Orleans. Everybody's sending little fireworks. They're like, "Hey, what are you up to that weekend?" I'm sure we'll be bouncing around a lot, cooking a lot of places.

But what an exciting thing to have back in New Orleans. I think it's a record-breaking time as well. I think it's now the most Super Bowls ever hosted in a single city [editor's note: NOLA will tie Miami for that title with 11 hosted Super Bowls]. I know that a lot of people within the city are really proud about that. Everybody's excited about it. We'll see if the Saints can get there. We're hoping for it. Fingers crossed. But we'll be there cheering no matter what.

Who are some other creatives who inspire you?

I look to a lot of artists, and it's not because I see art on plates. It's more I respect what artists do in terms of painting and things like that. I'm also a big fan of art. I was at Eleven Madison Park in New York not too long ago and [artist] Rashid Johnson does their to-go bags. I had never seen it. He painted like these woven to-go bags that they put their take-home granola in. It's amazing. And obviously, they have some stunning Rashid Johnson work that's in Eleven Madison Park. I've been following him for a while. We message back and forth on Instagram and stuff.

I've always been a massive fan of [artist] Hunt Slonem . He used to teach in New Orleans. He does stroke paintings of butterflies, bunnies and things like that. Those are really prevalent in New Orleans. Always been a big fan of that and super inspired because of the textural work. I think that stuff is fantastic.

And then as a New Orleanian, George Rodrigue and the Blue Dog are about the most iconic thing ever. Yeah, so definitely some inspiration that comes from artists.

But I'm also inspired by music. I was watching the Beatles' Let It Be documentary that was done for Disney+ not too long ago. It's a very long documentary, but I've liked Beatles music since I was a kid. It was really interesting to watch their creative process behind striving to make this new music in the '60s. I've now been reading books about the Beatles' creative process. They were workaholics. They were really pumping music out. That's been really inspirational.

For the person who's coming to town but wants no part of the French Quarter, share a few things that speak to the real New Orleans.

My local hack [involves] Cafe Du Monde beignets that you would normally be getting in the French Quarter. You can go to City Park 10 minutes from downtown. Beautiful park. They have a hidden Cafe Du Monde that's in the center of the park. And it is the best Cafe Du Monde location. The line is never crazy. There's a guy playing a trumpet, and it's great. And it's right by the New Orleans Museum of Art. They take credit cards. So, if you don't have cash on you, that is the spot to go.

Then, I would stroll down Magazine Street for sure. Specifically around Super Bowl, the weather's going to be fantastic. There's all sorts of little boutiques for men's and women's clothing, but then there's also art galleries and great little restaurants. And I have done the Magazine Street walk many a weekend, winding up at Lilette or somewhere Uptown and eating a really lovely late lunch or an early dinner, and then walking the rest of Magazine Street.

Another thing that's really cool is that it's close to Emeril's. We see a lot of action on the first Saturday of every month when they do a gallery walk downtown. Emeril's is on the corner of Gallery Row. All of the art galleries, some bars and some other little restaurants are down Julia Street. They do a lot of showings, and they change the art out in these galleries. And then, you can come get a martini at Emeril's.

What are your thoughts on the New Orleans dining scene?

It would be really tough to find a disappointment for me. On a on a global scale, now there are other restaurants in the city that are getting recognition. Like [chef] Serigne [Mbaye] at Dakar . That's one of the best new restaurants in America. And our friends down at Jewel of the South have the best bar in America from the James Beard Foundation. That's some big recognition to have the best new restaurant in America and the best bar in America be in New Orleans. And they're all great friends of ours. That's been really cool to see.

My friends Trey Smith and Blake Aguillard have this restaurant called Saint-Germain on Saint Claude Avenue. It is stunning. I think it's the best menu that you can go get in New Orleans right now. I just went recently, and the cooking that they're doing is genuinely world-class. I go there for inspiration. It's like this really friendly thing where they come and see us at Emeril's and I go and see them. We have this great banter back and forth and they're dear friends. But the restaurant is exceptional. It's a cannot-miss [establishment].

Ana Castro opened Acamaya , which is her love letter to Mexican seafood dishes. And I'm not joking, I've been four times. It is so good. She's open on days that I'm closed. I took my dad recently. We went and we were both going, "That's one of the best meals we've had in New Orleans in the last 10 years." So, the dining scene in New Orleans is evolving. It's changing every day into stuff that isn't necessarily New Orleans food.

What other exciting projects do you have on the horizon?

Just keep doing what we're doing at Emeril's is really the big thing. And yeah, the new restaurant is going to be a lot of fun. I'll have some nights where I leave Emeril's and head over to [34] because of how late that place is going to be open. But my focus is at Emeril's. We're constantly changing the menu there. That's where I'll be, so you know where to find me.

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