Emeril Lagasse

Emeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. He is a regional James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine and his selfdeveloped New New Orleans style. However, he is perhaps most notable for having appeared on a wide variety of cooking TV shows, including the longrunning Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril. On those shows he pioneered several catchphrases he is associated with, including Kick it up a notch and Bam Lagasses portfolio of media, products, and restaurants generates an estimated US150 million annually in revenue.

Lagasse was born on October 15, 1959, in Fall River, Massachusetts to a FrenchCanadian Qubcois father, John Lagass, and Portuguese mother, Hilda. Lagasse worked in a Portuguese bakery as a teenager where he discovered his talent for cooking and subsequently enrolled in a culinary arts program at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School. His talents as a percussionist earned him a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music but he chose instead to attend Johnson amp Wales University in hopes of becoming a chef. He attended Johnson and Wales in 1978 and the school later awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Source: Wikipedia