If there’s one dish from the current menu that perhaps best exemplifies Ripert’s influence on EJ’s style, it’s the precisely plated pan-roasted Mississippi trout almondine, a traditional New Orleans dish made famous by nearby Galatoire’s Restaurant that was also popular at his father’s restaurant for years. (EJ’s rendition is of trout almondine is among the best in a town that prides itself on that dish.) Crunchy slivered marcona almonds, uniformly diced haricot verts and twee baby potatoes create a plate that would not look out of place at Ripert’s seafood temple. The dish is brighter and more delicate than expected, even with a generous tableside pour of clarified parsley butter. “It was the intention to be lighter because of where it lands on the menu within the progression of the meal,” he says.
EJ’s tutelage in the kitchen hardly ended with Le Bernardin. After graduating from his father’s alma mater, Johnson & Wales, in 2021, he worked at Core by Clare Smyth in London and Frantzén in Stockholm, before returning to New Orleans in 2023. You’ll still spot Emeril senior in the kitchen when he’s in town, often greeting guests at the canapé station, but the elder Lagasse is focusing his energy on a new restaurant, 34, that celebrates his Portuguese heritage. At Emeril’s, meantime, a young new team largely assembled by EJ is now in charge, including chef de cuisine Emilie Van Dyke, who previously was at San Francisco’s groundbreaking Californios. “Once you’re surrounded by a group of people who have worked in so many different places, the restaurant’s network gets bigger,” EJ says.
Diners can watch the team in starched chef whites through crystal clear floor-to-ceiling windows. You’ll glimpse them cooking and plating, but also smiling and cracking jokes, occasionally staring right back at diners. They insist they’re only checking to see if we’re ready for our next course, but the immediacy of the interactions is lost on no one.
Dining and Cooking