Emeril Lagasse Quotes

Spices, of course, are essential.

In order to have good fried chicken, you should wash and season the bird the morning you're preparing it for dinner. Don't wait and do it right before you start cooking. Throw it in the refrigerator, seasoned, that morning, and give it a chance to soak up all the salt and pepper and goodness.

I use ginger like garlic. I love it for steaming fish and making barbecue sauces or roasted chicken.

It's important to salt the tomatoes before draining them because that helps pull out the water. Fresh herbs, some garlic and pepper will also enhance the flavor.

I like rice, as long as they let me put my own stuff on it. You can bring me white rice or brown rice; just let me doctor it up.

My least favorite ingredient to cook with is black pepper.

Sugar is my friend, not my love. I always season sugar with a bit of acid or salt. Listen to your tongue.

Growing up, I thought salt belonged in a shaker at the table and nowhere else.

Don't be afraid to play with combinations and quantities of spices to create your own bespoke spice rub.

You can add things to savoury dishes as you cook, but sweet dishes are more challenging.

Chefs don't use white pepper just to avoid spoiling the whiteness of pommes puree or bechamel. It has a more peppery aroma, with sharpness and sweetness, too.

Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I'm taking with me when I go.

I buy soy sauce and flavor it five different ways: with sake, mirin, sugar, kombu and bonito flakes. I use them on lots of dishes at home.

Soy sauce is really a multi-purpose seasoning.

When you're in Portuguese-African Brazil, or Lisbon, or Mozambique, sometimes piri piri is used as a condiment. Sometimes piri piri is just spices from a jar, and sometimes it's made with garlic, olive oil, cilantro, parsley, and some light chilies.

I'm a pretty decent cook. I like to grill. I have a smoker that I love. I love me some steak. And I'll make a huge salad with a ton of vegetables.

Brussels sprouts are misunderstood - probably because most people don't know how to cook them properly.

The trouble with some cooking is that the real flavours get cancelled out by the wine, cream, and butter sauces.

I use the confit principle for chicken thighs. I season them with herbs and garlic, let them marinate, and then cook them in chicken fat.

Never be tempted by water. The water tap should be sealed at lunchtime. If, for example, a sauce goes wrong, adding water doesn't help at all; one only achieves a taste of dishwater.

I add a lot of citrus to my food and I think that flavors it. And, to me, that what makes it healthier, lower in fat, lower in calories. It adds lots of flavor. Spices, of course. But citrus is definitely kind of my go-to to season and really to really make those flavors, make that food come alive.

You don't need Montreal steak seasoning on everything.

It took me all my life to learn how to salt a tomato.

First of all, you want to do the soaking with almost all of the larger beans because that will take care of the gas, and second of all... they want to be seasoned and flavored.

Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.