Halloween: Emeril's Delmonico Cookbook

By JULIETTE ROSSANT With Halloween right around the corner, reading Emeril Lagasse's newest cookbook, Emeril's Delmonico: A Restaurant with a Past (William Morrow 2005) might send a few shivers down the back -- shivers of delight. Emeril had copied his New Orleans restaurant Emeril's Delmonico (and the Delmonico Steakhouse at the Venetian Resort & Casino) on the venerable 19th Century Delmonico's in New York (described with great longing in Caleb Carr's truly eerie book, The Alienist, replete with admirable food descriptions). The story of Emeril's restaurant and cookbook is even more complicated and exciting than Delmonico's in New York. Once upon a time, the Delmonicos in New York sold the right to use their restaurant's name to one Anthony Commander. Delmonico passed to the LaFranco family, who in turn sold it in 1997 to Emeril Lagasse. Anthony Commander was an older brother of Emile Commander, whose saloon founded the basis of the Commander's Palace restaurant family empire, which some years ago employed a rising young chef named Emeril... This is a cookbook-lover's cookbook, because Emeril celebrates the Creole cuisine of the earlier LaFranco-owned restaurant and then records the additions and changes which he and his team have made. Whether you are fascinated by the history and development of the cuisines of New Orleans or by the process by which chefs revise recipes, this is the book for you, wonderful "three-fer" concept of recipes, history, and process. The recipes are for rich and luxurious food, with Southern, Creole, French influences. The stories of much-loved dished are charming and bring out the history of a restaurant known as much for its gracious hostesses as for its food. A fourth element to mention are the wonderful photographs, particularly the now elderly Black chefs who had worked under the LaFranco family (check out the photo of cooks Irene Polk, Elmer Dacquir, and Atwood Davis as they test recipes, p. 113). Lastly, there are also recipes that call for fancy tableside service, which Emeril brought back to the elegant dinning room of Delmonico's -- including fun recipes like Caesar Salad (pp. 86-7), and Steak Diane (p. 172) -- which evoke the elegance, the richness and flavor of New Orleans, at present only sadly remembered. Emeril's Delmonico and its two New Orleans restaurants sadly remain closed by Hurricane Katrina, but Delmonico's resurrected itself in New York not too long ago, and we can only wait for Emerils' restaurants to re-open in New Orleans. Meanwhile, we have this cookbook. Super chef: Emeril Lagasse Book details: Publsher Amazon.com Book tour dates Previous articles: Emeril Lagasse: Carnivale du Vin All-Stars [complete Cookbook Reviews] Related articles: ABC - WLS Channel 7 TV Chicago NPR Boston Herald San Jose Mercury News Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, cookbook, Emeril, New Orleans, Katrina, history --> back to superchefblog