Emeril Lagasse: 'Learn something every day or you're cheating yourself'

Emeril Lagasse, author of Essential Emeril, says he keeps an open-minded approach to food.

On 3 recipes every cook should know

Sally Swift: We love to talk essential recipes here at The Splendid Table. We've done this whole series called The Key 3 where we ask chefs and good cooks the three recipes that they think every cook should know. What are your three?

Emeril Lagasse: I would say probably No. 1 would be pate a choux, to either make profiteroles or to make gougeres. I think understanding that is important.

SS: So it's an essential dough.

EL: I think a basic bread dough is also very important, whether it's something as simple as pizza or a basic white bread dough that you can proof. Understanding that, I think, is important.

Then I would think probably the technique of making an emulsion. People get a little freaked out about making an emulsion. It's really just whisking it and doing it slow.

SS: Like a salad dressing. A vinaigrette is an emulsion.

EL: Exactly. I think those three I would probably stick with.

On chow mein sandwiches

Lagasse's recipe: Fall River Chow Mein

SS: The book contains more of your essentials. One of them that I found really, really interesting was the chow mein sandwich.

EL: I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. This particular recipe was really -- as most of the book is -- a memory of my journey. Part of my journey was growing up on these chow mein sandwiches from a place called Mee Sum, which is still there. Every time I visit Fall River, I have to go to Mee Sum and get one of those chow mein sandwiches.

SS: It's literally chow mein that is in a hamburger bun?

EL: It's in a hamburger bun. They would wrap them in this wax paper. You would get them in a paper bag. I can remember when they used to be three for $1. You'd buy a bunch of them and take them home. The more you waited, the soggier they got.

On chefs who have influenced him

SS: I was surprised to see you dedicate this book to Charlie Trotter.

Essential Emeril

EL: Charlie was not only one of my best friends, but he was also one of my best pals to cook with. We did a lot of cooking and a lot of traveling together. We really explored a lot of parts of the world together to learn.

One that's in the book is a journey that we had together when we went to see Fredy Girardet in Crissier, Switzerland. Fredy Girardet was a Swiss chef who had this restaurant in Crissier, Switzerland, for many, many years. He ran the restaurant with his mom and a really incredible talented maitre d'. Many times Charlie, I and some friends would make the journey over there.

Charlie was not only my best friend, but he was a brother. He was, as I say in the book, a passionate explorer. He was certainly a scholar. He was a perfectionist. He was near genius and ran an incredible restaurant in Chicago that really puts Chicago first on the map for grand cuisine. He's well missed.

SS: You talk about a lot of your chef friends in this book, people who have influenced you, like Mario Batali.

EL: That's what Essential Emeril really is. It's not really a memoir, but it's sort of a journey -- maybe the last 30 years, how it has evolved. I couldn't put everything in the book and I couldn't put everyone in the book.

But there are people like Mario Batali who have inspired me. There's a very unique pasta dish that I did my version for him. Larry Forgione was certainly a chef who inspired me at a very young age, before I started the Commander's Palace, back when he was at The River Cafe. He became a mentor.

SS: How old were you then?

EL: In my young 20s.

On his evolving style as a chef

SS: You were talking about traveling with Charlie. Is there a culinary trip that you haven't taken yet that you're excited to make?

EL: I haven't spent a lot of time in Asia. I'm more the other side of the pond. I have spent a lot of time obviously in France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain. My influences and my style -- which is a bit rustic, certainly bold -- I think are because of not only my heritage, growing up and how I was influenced at home, but also certainly how I was schooled and where I studied. Where I visit is more of those particular areas of the world. It's more the mortar for me.

I just had a trip to Greece and I experienced some wonderful food there. I would like to go to Australia again; I think it's a pretty interesting part of the world. But that's exactly how food is.

I have some good friends who are Greek. I never really thought much about their cuisine and culture. Then, all of a sudden, I had a recent trip there and I was blown away. I was blown away how every island has a little bit different influence than the next, and the style and the technique. I find it fascinating.

But that's how I approach food. I'm always very open-minded. I believe that you should learn something every day or you're cheating yourself. That's how I approach it. As I'm getting older and things evolve, my style just continues to keep getting probably a little simpler because I'm more ingredient-driven than I am about stuff being cute on a plate.