Heart, Soul and Gumbo

From the prep station to primetime, For celebrity cheF and restaurateur lagasse, it’s all about the love.

It’s the start of a balmy South Florida weekday, and Chef Emeril Lagasse and his team are gearing up for another day in the trenches—the ones about a mile offshore, at the edge of the Gulf Stream. Standing on the mezzanine of his 70-foot Viking, Lagasse embodies the prototypical sportfishing sun-worshiper in a long-sleeve, UV-protective performance tee and a ball cap. The culinary icon, who grew up fishing on the Gulf Coast and calls New Orleans home, seems every bit as hospitable as the Big Easy itself on the opening day of the Emeril Lagasse Foundation’s second Line, Vine & Dine fishing tournament.

He keeps good company. His guests on board span an eclectic mix of boating and fishing enthusiasts who came together in the spirit of good food and wine, good fun and good works, raising money to benefit culinary, nutrition and arts education through youth charities. Lagasse, who’s shaped an extraordinary career around food, wine and charisma, doesn’t need to tell me how passionate he is about this side of his life. It’s etched in the jovial expression on his face.

By the end of this year’s tournament, he and his friends will have raised more than $800,000 for charity. Sixteen teams competed in the twoday fishing tournament, and that’s plenty for Lagasse. He says the model was always to keep the event smallish in size, with fewer boats meaning

spare time comes at a premium for lagasse, but he makes the most of it by sportfishing as often as he can on his 70-foot viking,

Emeril’s classic seafood gumbo, circuit. This was new stuff for us, so I hired Capt. Brad. He was a young gun at the time and people were like, ‘ Don’t you want a more experienced captain?’ I said, ‘ No, I want Brad. Brad’s good. He’s got heart. He’s got soul. We’ll learn together.’ As it turns out, Brad’s one of the best captains around now.”

After a few seasons, Lagasse and Benton realized it was time to get serious. They upgraded to a brand-new Viking 70, which they named aldente— in part because of the cooking term al dente, and in larger part because Lagasse’s wife’s name is Alden. They spec’d the yacht to the nth degree for fishing and entertaining.

“She’s totally customized,” Lagasse says. “The guys at Viking must have thought we were insane: ‘ We need a full oven in the galley so we can roast chickens. We need a big grill— a Gaggenau grill.’ They didn’t even know how to spell it. We love to cook on the boat. I mean we really cook … anything from roast chickens to ribs, steaks, grilled chicken Caesar salads, meatballs, pasta. We love cooking with the air fryer— no oil, no smell, easy to clean.”

Benton proudly displays the air fryer and chimes in from across the salon: “Tune in to QVC on …”

Lagasse chuckles. It is, of course, one of several Emeril-brand products aboard aldente.

And all of them help to make sure aldente is well stocked, especially for crew meals and snacks.