Emeril Lagasse

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Emeril Lagasse (not to be confused with the poet Emily Dickinson) made television history in 2003 when he passed Saturday Night Live to become the largest volume producer of catch phrases on television. By one recent estimate, 75 percent of his nightly Food Network program is now composed of catch phrases.

Some of Lagasse's best-known catch phrases include:

• "Bam!"
• "Kick it up a notch!"
• "It's a 'food of love' thing."
• "We're really cooking here!"
• "I don't know where you get your (name of ingredient), but where I get my (name of ingredient) it don't come seasoned."
• "Pork fat rules!"
• "It matters not how strait the gate / How charged with punishments the scroll / I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul."

A native of Fall River, Massachusetts, Lagasse's breakthrough in the world of cuisine came when he was appointed the chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, a restaurant the staff of FEMA intends to try as soon as they reach the Crescent City. Lagasse soon stepped out on his own, opening a chain of restaurants. This led to his discovery by the Food Network.

His first studio shows were only modest successes, but the success of a special taped in front of a live audience convinced the network to launch Emeril Live!, which is not live in the sense of being telecast at the same time it is performed but rather in the sense that live human sacrifices are conducted at the conclusion of each episode. Occasionally, Lagasse cooks something during the show.

Lagasse also starred in a short-lived sitcom, Emeril, which co-starred Robert Urich. Urich played detective Spenser, while Lagasse played the mysterious enforcer Hawk.