Marlene

Emeril's restaurants in New Orleans: their rich history and future

By Valerie Phillips
Deseret Morning News

After Hurricane Katrina hit, I wrote a column expressing concern about New Orleans' culinary history. So, when the cookbook "Emeril's Delmonico" arrived on my desk about a month ago, it was a treat to read about the history and recipes of this century-old restaurant. More than a cookbook, "Emeril's Delmonico" captures some of the lore behind Creole cuisine and the legendary restaurants that fostered it.
I had also wondered how Emeril Lagasse's three restaurants had fared during the flooding. The Food Network TV host owns three New Orleans restaurants — Emeril's in the Warehouse District, NOLA Restaurant in the French Quarter and Emeril's Delmonico in the Garden District. According to HarperCollins publicist Carrie Bachman and company press releases, the restaurants were spared major flooding. Emeril's Restaurant is scheduled to reopen tomorrow, and NOLA will open Dec. 13. Emeril's Delmonico was more heavily damaged, and its reopening will likely be in January or February.
"Each sustained some damage, and they are in the process of having a major cleanup done from top to bottom," Bachman told me about a month ago. "When they reopen, it may be more of a limited menu because many of the food proprietors were local. Many of his employees were relocated to his other restaurants in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Miami and Orlando. Emeril is very committed to having people come back to New Orleans."
This marks yet another chapter in the colorful history of the Delmonico, which opened in 1895. Anthony Commander had received permission from the famed New York Delmonico to open an independent branch in the Crescent City. The New York restaurant is credited with some of the classics of American cuisine — lobster Newburg, chicken a la king, eggs Benedict and baked Alaska — before closing in 1923. (According to Lagasse, the current Delmonico's Restaurant in New York has no connection with the original restaurant.)
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Delmonico lived on. Anthony Commander (brother to Emile Commander, who founded Commander's Palace in 1880) sold it to Anthony LaFranca in 1911. The restaurant remained in the LaFranca family until 1997, when it was sold to Lagasse. Many of the old dishes are still on the menu. To keep up with changing taste buds, others were retired, updated or "kicked up a notch." But they're all documented in the book. For instance, Oysters Bienville was named in honor of the French founder of New Orleans — Sieur de Bienville, Jean Baptiste le Moyne. Chicken Delmonico, topped with rich mushroom-artichoke sauce, was a signature dish of the old restaurant and is still on the menu. Bananas Foster was created at Brennan's (another historic New Orleans restaurant), but Emeril puts his own spin on it as Bananas Foster Bread Pudding. Turtle soup was once so popular that the meat from Wiley's Turtle Farm was delivered 100 pounds at a time. Crabmeat Remick first appeared on the menu at the Pontchartrain Hotel's Caribbean Room in the 1920s. It was such a local classic that Lagasse put it on his Delmonico menu.
Since the hurricane, Lagasse's company has been busy with rebuilding efforts. His charity's "Carnivale Du Vin" dinner extravaganza in Las Vegas raised $1.4 million to benefit New Orleans children affected by Hurricane Katrina. On hand were chefs Mario Batali, Sam Choy, Daniel Boulud, Todd English, Nobu Matsuhisa, Charlie Trotter and Norman Van Aken. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf auctioned off a private tennis lesson with themselves (the winning bid was $140,000).
For all his ties to New Orleans, Lagasse actually grew up in Massachusetts. He earned a culinary degree at Johnson & Wales University, and polished his skills in France, Philadelphia, Boston and New York before gaining fame as chef of Commander's Palace in New Orleans.

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