Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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BAM! Emeril Visits The Bay Area Today [Brandon Kicks It Up A Notch]

Posted Nov 8, 2009 by Jeff Houck

Updated Nov 8, 2009 at 07:43 AM

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse started working on a cookbook a little more than a year ago, just as the economy took a nosedive. His worry: People would lose sight of cooking fresh and putting out good meals.

With a goal of helping home cooks adapt to time constraints during the week, he wrote “Emeril 20-40-60: Fresh Food Fast.” It’s published by HarperStudio.

Lagasse, proprietor of 11 restaurants including two in Orlando and one in Miami, visits the Tampa area at 3 p.m. today with a stop at the Books-A-Million in Westfield Brandon Shopping Mall.

The book is broken down into three sections: recipes that can be completed in 20 minutes or less, 40 minutes or less, and under 60 minutes.

We talked recently about the book for a Table Conversations podcast (you can listen to the entire interview by clicking here).

Emeril - how do you say in this country - was beyond cool. First, he tracked me down after I had a bout of brain flatulence and gave him the wrong number to call for the interview. I was walking through the newsroom in a panic when the cellphone in my hand rang.

“Hi Jeff, It’s Emeril.”

[Me trying to sound cool, while saying it loud enough for the newsroom to hear] “Oh, hi Emeril.”

Second, he put up with me telling him that when he was younger, he looked like a Jonas Brother. Then he tolerated me saying he now looked like the cool uncle of the Jonas Brothers.

Doubt me?

I rest my case.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt of the interview:

I’ve been fascinated by the psychological 20-minute threshold when it comes to cooking. Why do you think it’s important to have the three time frames?

We’re all busy and we all have different lives. Some of us have kids and we’re running around to ballet and school things and soccer. Some of us are just hardcore workers who are working longer days and the days are getting shorter. I really wanted to give people a sense of time, I wanted to give them a sense of quality and, if you thumb through the book, you’ll see that unless it’s a cultural dish, most include very simple ingredients that are in your pantry. There are a lot of side dishes we seem to forget about.

No. 2, I wanted to do what I’ve been preaching about for years, which is reducing the intimidation factor. I wanted to let people break it down and absorb it and cook it. A lot of the photographs, like the Kicked Up Shrimp Fried Rice and the Fettuccine with Peas and Ham have multiple photographs because I wanted to show people in the beginning, in the middle and at the end when they should add various ingredients. I think it will make them feel comfortable to see the technique.

When I see these cookbooks that say, “It’s a 20-minute recipe,” I’m thinking in the back of my head, “I don’t have a Viking range at home and a giant walk-in restaurant cooler. I hope these things are tested under real-life circumstances.”

Our test kitchens are basically home kitchens. We have three different modules for that. We have an upscale module, basically for expediency. We have a regular, down-home gas system. We have a few independent gadgets like a fryer and a steamer. And we even test them on electric appliances as well. We never ever take it to the commercial side of things. These are recipes for the home cook. This is not a chef’s book or a restaurant book.

I don’t think I’ve interviewed anyone who could be recognized, like Cher or Sting, by one name. With your level of success, how do you keep your food rooted in reality?

Well, I’m basically plugged into reality. … I was on (“Good Morning America”) yesterday. It doesn’t get any more real than when Whoopi Goldberg brings a bag of groceries that I have no idea what’s in it and I have an hour to cook what’s in it. It doesn’t get any more real than that.

I try to constantly preach that I put my pants on the same way as everybody else. I come home and I’m faced with the same things. I’ve been at the office and I get home later than I wanted to be or at the restaurant later than I wanted to be. I gotta spend time with the kids, try to teach them how to read, try to put a meal on the table, try to help my wife who’s been running around crazy all day as well. That’s reality, and when you forget about that, then it doesn’t become real anymore. For me, if it’s not real, then I don’t really want to be in the game.

That explains the Chili Mac recipe.

(Laughs) That’s exactly right. The nachos aren’t bad either.