Top 80 Emeril Lagasse Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Everyone needs a mentor.”

— Emeril Lagasse

2. “If you think big, then it’s going to be big.”

— Emeril Lagasse

3. “One big reason I do what I do is there’s no two days alike. It’s not work for me. It’s my life. My passion.”

— Emeril Lagasse

4. “Get up every day and try a little harder than the day before.”

— Emeril Lagasse

5. “I don’t limit myself.”

— Emeril Lagasse

6. “You gotta have good olive oil. You should have a cooking olive oil and you should have a finishing olive oil, like an extra-virgin olive oil.”

— Emeril Lagasse

7. “Life just doesn’t hand you things. You have to get out there and make things happen. that’s the exciting part.”

— Emeril Lagasse

8. “Food is very representative of a city’s culture. In order to really get to know a place and the people, you’ve got to eat the food.”

— Emeril Lagasse

9. “I’m working harder than ever now, and I’m putting on my pants the same as I always have. I just get up every day and try to do a little better than the day before, and that is to run a great restaurant with great food, great wine, and great service. That’s my philosophy.”

— Emeril Lagasse

10. “I love to cook; that’s my passion.”

— Emeril Lagasse

11. “Anything made with love, bam! -it’s a beautiful meal.”

— Emeril Lagasse

12. “Cleanliness is very important. If you let kids make a total mess in the kitchen and then leave, you’re not really teaching them anything.”

— Emeril Lagasse

13. “I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. My background was modest, and I worked at a Portuguese bakery in town.”

— Emeril Lagasse

14. “My philosophy from day one is that I can sleep better at night if I can improve an individual’s knowledge about food and wine, and do it on a daily basis.”

— Emeril Lagasse

15. “Cooking is so popular today because it’s the perfect mix of food and fun.”

— Emeril Lagasse

Featured in: Fun Quotes

16. “My inspiration was my mom. She’s a great cook, and she still cooks, and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community, food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.”

— Emeril Lagasse

17. “I wouldn’t ask any of my employees to do anything I wouldn’t do. And I work as hard, if not harder than the rest of the staff, to set an example. I also believe in giving my employees a lot of room to be creative and to express themselves.”

— Emeril Lagasse

18. “Soups are a great way to introduce a lot of vegetables to kids. Stir-fries, too, because they contain so many different shapes and colors.”

— Emeril Lagasse

19. “It’s okay to play with your food.”

— Emeril Lagasse

20. “Food that’s beautiful to look at seems to taste better than food that isn’t.”

— Emeril Lagasse

21. “I like to keep things simple. It’s really about the wine, food and the beach view. Nothing can beat that.”

— Emeril Lagasse

22. “Being a food show and being me, I always kicked it up a notch, which means I would always elevate the spice level or the complexity of a particular dish. So, it was always like we’re going to kick this up a little bit.”

— Emeril Lagasse

23. “If kids can learn how to make a simple Bolognese sauce, they will never go hungry. It’s pretty easy to cook pasta, but a good sauce is way more useful.”

— Emeril Lagasse

24. “My food is Louisiana, New Orleans-based, well-seasoned, rustic. I think it’s pretty unique because of my background being influenced by my mom, Portuguese and French Canadian. There’s a lot going on there.”

— Emeril Lagasse

25. “I mean, if you love what you do-whether you’re an auto mechanic or you sew clothes or you cook-it’s all about personal passion and love that really makes the thrust to the level that you want to get it to.”

— Emeril Lagasse

26. “I love fresh citrus and always keep lemons, limes, and oranges on hand; they come in handy for spritzing up quickly grilled meats, seafoods, and vegetables, especially when followed up by a quick drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.”

— Emeril Lagasse

27. “I had a fierce curiosity about this food thing.”

— Emeril Lagasse

28. “My Food Network shows, ‘Emeril Live’ and ‘Essence of Emeril,’ are not in production right now, but I wouldn’t say that I’m necessarily leaving Food Network. I have a lot of television still in me. I enjoy teaching people, so it’s just a matter of time before I do something new.”

— Emeril Lagasse

29. “Radishes grow just about anywhere. People think, ‘Oh it’s just a radish.’ But radishes are delicious, and people don’t think of cooking them.”

— Emeril Lagasse

30. “You go to a restaurant in the States and kids have these game boards at the table. You don’t see that in Italy or Spain. It’s not because they can’t afford to buy them, it’s because that’s not what eating together as a family is about.”

— Emeril Lagasse

31. “If you don’t follow your dream, who will?”

— Emeril Lagasse

32. “We’ll be going to the fish market and a farmer’s market this afternoon to get what we need to make and eat dinner as a family. I’m trying to expose my kids to going to a farmers market or the fish market and learning what that’s all about.”

— Emeril Lagasse

33. “Kids are now eating things like edamame and sushi. I didn’t know what shiitake mushrooms were when I was 10 – most kids today do.”

— Emeril Lagasse

34. “We’re setting up an urban farm for kids on more than 20 acres in New Orleans. We want to make this a world-class educational center for the community.”

— Emeril Lagasse

35. “I moved to Louisiana to become the executive Chef at Commander’s Place. And I must say I had some encouragement from friends such as Ella Brennan, the queen of the New Orleans’s culinary set, and others. This was very flattering to a young man with a dream. I was only 26 years old.”

— Emeril Lagasse

36. “Start with a clean grill. Keep it clean by brushing with a wire brush after preheating, and again after cooking. Make sure to oil your grates and your food before putting it on the grill to keep it from sticking.”

— Emeril Lagasse

37. “I have a lot of influences. I’m American-schooled. I’m classically trained. I’m a pretty universal student, if you will. I have a lot of degrees, which really don’t pay the rent. I have two doctorate degrees, I have a bachelor’s degree, but I’m still a cook.”

— Emeril Lagasse

38. “My favorite Aspen memory is saving an upside-down cake that had exploded from the high altitude.”

— Emeril Lagasse

39. “I make some of my best recipes with a simple homemade stock. Keep shrimp shells stored in a plastic bag in the freezer. When you have almost a gallon-bag full, you can make a stock in 30 minutes that you can use in soups and sauces. You can then freeze the stock in ice-cube trays.”

— Emeril Lagasse

40. “When I cook with my son, I might chop vegetables and have fun with different shapes. Cooking is a way to teach kids about other things, like reading or math with all of the weights and measures. There are so many things that are part of cooking that are also very educational.”

— Emeril Lagasse

Featured in: Fun Quotes

41. “I spent a lot of time on farms when I was young. My uncle and my dad owned a big farm.”

— Emeril Lagasse

42. “Many of my staff have been with me for over 20 years. I have a great team, and I make sure they feel respected and appreciated.”

— Emeril Lagasse

43. “I was on the board of Andre Agassi’s foundation, and seeing the way it operated blew my mind. In 2002, I told my wife, I want to start a foundation to give back, I want it to be for kids in hard circumstances, and I want it to be culinary-driven, because that’s who I am.”

— Emeril Lagasse

44. “The premise of ‘The Originals’ are places that have been open 50, 60, 75, 100 years or longer that are still doing it right that maybe a lot of people, particularly the younger generations, have not even thought about.”

— Emeril Lagasse

45. “A lot of parents ask me how to get kids to eat more vegetables. The first thing I say is that it starts from the top.”

— Emeril Lagasse

46. “I try to teach my son about sanitation, especially when handling foods like chicken that could be dangerous. I remind him to wash his hands all the time. When my son cooks with me, he stands on a step stool so he can reach the stove. I teach him about safety and fire.”

— Emeril Lagasse

47. “Books make great gifts because they expand your horizons and keep you cooking.”

— Emeril Lagasse

48. “I started cooking when I was about 10. I have memories like when I was 6 or 7 with my mom, and when I was 12 I started getting real serious about cooking.”

— Emeril Lagasse

49. “When I want to kick it up, I like to add hardwood chips or chunks to the grill; it adds bold smoky flavors. The most common woods are hickory and mesquite, but you can find alder, apple, cherry and, my personal favorite, pecan.”

— Emeril Lagasse

50. “I can’t tell you enough about cinnamon. Cinnamon is an awesome spice to use and it goes great with something like apples in the morning or in a mixture of fruit or in your oatmeal or even in your cereal.”

— Emeril Lagasse