Atlantic City Weekly

For anyone who ever doubted the broad popularity of Emeril Lagasse, consider this: The first rock-star chef created by the TV Food Network is so big he doesn’t even have to show up to star in his new interactive casino show that further blurs the line between entertainment and food.
    That doesn’t mean Lagasse won’t be appearing in A Taste of Emeril’s, which is having its premier run at Caesars Atlantic City through Nov. 12. But Lagasse, who is as much a brand and he is a person, gets to phone in his part or, more accurately, appear via videotape.
    The 65-minute live show is actually a cooking competition where contestants are chosen from the audience and compete for prizes against one another in a series of cooking challenges. It’s all done under the watchful eyes of professional chefs who have been “Emerilized” while Lagasse looks down from big-screen monitors and offers taped commentary and critique.
    The idea for the show came last year during NATPE, the big television programming convention in Las Vegas. Lagasse and his production partner, FremantleMedia, saw a need for casino entertainment that wouldn’t break the budget of both the audience and the gaming halls that often bankroll big shows.
    “I’ve been in Las Vegas for 15 years, and I’ve seen an Elton John show, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce, and I’ve seen the average $120 million Cirque du Soleil shows,” he says. “But who the hell is going to be writing checks for that kind of money during [a down economy]?”
    And who, he asks rhetorically, can afford upwards of nearly $200 for a ticket to those shows?
    So Lagasse and his partners began creating an interactive, food-themed casino show that didn’t cost tens of millions of dollars to produce and could be marketed to the public at a reasonable price.
    He feels audiences will be accepting of the fact that he won’t be appearing live in the show.   
    “It’s not like Emeril’s not going to be there every night, because he is,” he says, referring to himself in the third person and further reinforcing the notion that he’s a person and a brand. “It’s just that Emeril will be there through the incredible state-of-the-art imagery that so many people use to communicate today.”
The show is currently being hosted by Marc Summers, who produces and hosts the series Unwrapped on the Food Network. On Nov. 3, comedian and actor Mark DeCarlo, who hosts Taste of America on The Travel Channel, takes over for Summers.
    There was no cutting corners on the set of A Taste of Emeril’s. It resembles a cross between Emeril Live, the variety-like cooking show that ran on the Food Network from 1997 until 2007, and the network’s The Essence of Emeril, which has been airing since 1996.
    A Taste of Emeril’s is something of a gamble, Lagasse admits during a phone call from his New York office.
    “I’ll be honest, I have no idea what’s going to happen with this show, because there’s nothing for me to gauge it against,” he says. However, if history is a predictor, the show has a good chance of succeeding, since FremantleMedia has successfully produced live casino adaptations of popular TV game shows like The Price Is Right and Family Feud.
    “But something like this, it’s never been done before,” he adds.
    Lagasee, who recently turned 50, does have name and brand recognition on his side. In addition to his television success, he currently owns a dozen restaurants, including at least five in casinos in Las Vegas, Mississippi and Pennsylvania. He’s also developing a chain of upscale gourmet hamburger restaurants. He has also authored best-selling cookbooks and developed a full line of kitchen products. Last year, Martha Stewart Omnimedia announced it had acquired the rights to all things Emeril  — except the restaurants — in a $50 million deal.
Although nearly half of his restaurants are located in casinos, Lagasse — who turned down a college music scholarship in order to pursue his love of cooking — won’t say if or when he’ll open an eatery in Atlantic City.
“We’ve come close [in Atlantic City] a few times, but the deals just didn’t seem right to me,” he explains. “I won’t tell you it’s not going to happen, but it’s not on the drawing board now. I’m not interested in [selling my name] in return for the build-out or something like that. [My restaurants] aren’t bankrolled by casinos, like some of these [celebrity chefs]. I’m up to my ass in alligators, same as everyone else. I’ve got my cash in there.”
Besides, Lagasse isn’t certain there’s room for another celebrity chef in Atlantic City right now. Adding his own name to the stew might be overkill at this point, although he admits the plethora of celebrated chefs hasn’t seemed to hurt Las Vegas.
“[Mario] Batali is right across the hall from me [at the Venetian], and Michael Mina is right across from my fish house at the MGM Grand,” he says of his celebrated competition. "But at some point, there comes a time when it might be too much. I don’t know if Atlantic City is at that point right now.”
A Taste of Emeril’s is presented at Caesars Atlantic City Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 2pm; Thursdays at 7pm and Nov. 6-7 at 7pm, through Nov. 12. Tickets are $35, available through ticketmaster.com.