Emeril Lagasse is a legend in the food industry and is seen by many as one of the forefathers of television food personalities and food programming. But many of us can’t think of him or discuss his influences without remembering his wildly popular catchphrase, “BAM!”
For those of us who watched Emeril Live or The Essence of Emeril over the years, we know this phrase. It’s as ingrained in pop culture as Julia Child making French cuisine or Bobby Flay utilizing the grill and the chili pepper. Emeril used the phrase “BAM!” so often that those of us who watched his shows would start to anticipate the phrase, whether watching in the studio audience or on our home television. Whether he grabbed a seasoning blend or a pepper, or even a dash of salt, we’d all cheer and hold our breath waiting for the signature catchphrase. But how did it actually start, and why did he say it so often?
The Origins of Emeril’s Most Famous Catchphrase
I recently was among the attendees at The Next Course, a culinary-focused media event hosted by Carnival Cruise Line in New Orleans, and Lagasse (who serves as the chief culinary officer for the cruise line), spoke a while about his career and culinary trends. Obviously, the question of the origin of his catchphrase came up.
“Back when I started at Food Network, we were doing a show called The Essence of Emeril,” said the celebrity chef, who went on to recall: “Mostly because of my work schedule, my restaurant schedule … we had to shoot a lot of shows in a day because I had limited time.”
Emeril would close the restaurant Saturday night, “2:00-ish in the morning,” take the 7 a.m. flight to New York, get off the plane, and then spend the whole day shooting shows, as many as five to eight shows in a day for a few days, and fly right back to New Orleans and go right back to the kitchen at his restaurant.
“So, being a food show with a crew—not many, four, five people in the kitchen running carts back and forth—and we really cooked, it wasn’t a bunch of fake food. Five camera people, one stage manager, the rest in the control tower. We’re a food show,” recalled Emeril, who said he would hear them moaning and groaning as they would do these shows. They were exhausted and starving and smelling all the delicious food he was preparing.
“And they wanted to eat the food!” he said. “So we would break for lunch, there would be the table, all the dishes on the table, and the crew would be *[mimics devouring sounds]*, and they would just devour all the food,” he said, sharing that after lunch, the team would come back, and then shoot three or four more shows that afternoon.
“I’m doing the show, and all of a sudden I can see camera one, camera three, and they’re… *[mimics nodding off]* because they’re foodied [sic] out. They’re falling asleep on me…” So, he says, “‘BAM!’ came to wake them all up!”
It’s decades later now, and yet everyone automatically will know who we are talking about if they hear this catchphrase, as it’s possibly the most recognizable in food programming history. How funny that it had nothing to do with strategy or branding, but just a tired and over-extended chef trying to wake up his team. We can relate!
Read the original article on Southern Living
Dining and Cooking