Emeril — ‘hard-core Fall River’ — talks new Portuguese restaurant
“It’s about culture. It’s about tradition.”
PrOviDEncE — he swept through town like a Portuguese rock star, leaving fans reporting sightings and chefs sharing selfies and bakeries posting grainy security footage just to prove it really happened: Emeril Lagasse had been there.
The famed chef, Tv host, and cookbook author recently took a swing through rhode island and southeastern massachusetts on a fact-finding mission as he prepares to do something he’s never done before in his long years in the limelight: open a Portuguese restaurant. it may not be the first thing people think about when they think about Emeril. in fact, many people think he’s italian, he said. but his mother’s name was hilda Medeiros Lagasse, and he came from Fall river, which can only mean this: Emeril has caldo verde in his blood, bacalhau in his bones.
“i grew up hard-core Fall river,” Emeril said of the southeastern masssachusetts city, which as of 2018 had 46 percent of residents of Portuguese heritage. “i played in a Portuguese band. Did all the festas. sopas. Favas. bacalhau and all of that stuff. it’s part of who i am. it’s part of my culture. And certainly influences my style.”
And soon that style — as well as Emeril’s Portuguese heritage — will be on display at his new restaurant in new Orleans, set to open around september this year. it is called 34 restaurant & bar, named after Emeril and his son, who are the third and fourth people to be named Emeril Lagasse. There’s not much of its kind down south, Emeril said. The chef and his culinary entourage recently went on a whirlwind tour of some of the Portuguese restaurants in our area, picking up inspiration and good meals along the way.
The boston globe’s rhode island bureau’s Portuguese affairs correspondent, brian Amaral, recently spoke to Emeril via telephone to get a sense of his new restaurant, and how his Fall river roots helped get him there. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. You’ve been a restaurateur and a public figure for decades now, but this is your first Portuguese restaurant. Why was this the right time to do it?
A. i’m enamored by Portuguese food. my son E.J. is very into it as well. he has recently taken over as the chef patron of the flagship [Emeril’s in new Orleans]. so he’s got some incredible training. he and i and his mom, my wife, had a little conversation, and it was like, i want to pay a little homage to my mom. my r&D team has been to Portugal a couple of times, but i wanted them to see Fall river, new bedford, and Westport firsthand. i wanted [the restaurant] to be real. i wanted to really pay homage to my mom. And i wanted to pay a little homage not only to Fall river, but the Portuguese culture and Portuguese food.
Q. You’re from Fall River and you went to Johnson & Wales University in Providence. Have those things influenced you over the course of your career even before you set out on this new restaurant?
A. no question about it. There’s a lot of influences in our menus throughout, even at the flagship at Emeril’s. my son E.J. just did a spring fish dish that had the really modern caldo verde sauce. [The menu] had elements of my mom’s recheio, her stuffing. The dish is dynamite.
Q. Portuguese restaurant isn’t a monolith. What’s Emeril’s take on Portuguese restaurant going to be? Are you going for something more traditional, or are you going to kick it up a notch?
A. it’s definitely going to be kicked up several notches. it’s going to be traditional, but modernized. We’re going to have a jamon bar, mostly Portuguese hams and cheeses, which will have eight seats. The restaurant is fairly good-sized. so i’m really feeling this European vibe. We actually have a DJ booth for weekends. A very small speakeasy that we’re doing. gambas and clams and clams mozambique, but it’ll be modernized.
Q. I feel like people generally associate you with New Orleans, but the people of Fall River would probably associate you with Hilda Medeiros and the St. John’s Athletic Club kitchen. Do you think people generally know about your Portuguese heritage, and has this endeavor changed that perception at all?
A. because of the “Emeril Live” days, i think a lot of people think i’m italian. i spent a lot of time there, too. i tried to do a little bit of Portuguese food and heritage. it was really nice to do that kind of trip back in Fall river. i don’t have any relatives there now. most of them moved to new Orleans. so the only real connection i had was using mello’s or gaspar’s products. my local grocery store is Publix. They carry gaspar’s chouriços and linguiças, just for me.
Q. I saw you went to O Dinis in East Providence, which is a personal favorite. Any favorite dishes you picked up from there?
A. [chef natalia Paiva-neves] is incredible. We had a lot of incredible traditional dishes. clams, shrimp, codfish cakes, etc. i told her we were going to Portugalia in Fall river, and she said, “Well, i’ll meet you there. michael [benevides] is a good friend, i’ll show you around. Plus i need to do some shopping.” Then she invited us back to O Dinis again for fado night. she killed us. she absolutely killed us. i’m not exaggerating, we must have had 15 courses. We probably drank too much Portuguese wine, since we were also on a Portuguese wine mission. We also went to sagres in Fall river, we went to Portas [da cidade] in Westport — it was great for our guys to smell it, to taste it. sunday morning, we did about six bakeries. We went to the bakery where i first started on bedford street, the Old moonlight baking corporation [now barcelos bakery]. We were just buying products, going in the parking lot in our car, and just tasting the breads and pastries. They got to see where i grew up, where i went to school, where i lived, my backyard by the st. John’s club. it was really an awesome trip.
Q. Why is it important to carry on these traditions, from your mom and now to your son?
A. it’s about culture. it’s about tradition. i don’t want to lose those Portuguese roots. i’m very proud of being from Fall river. so i just want it to be true. And we’re trying to make 34 as true as can possibly be.