Do you have a rant in you about Emeril Lagasse like you do about Bobby Flay?
I...hm. I think in a way I both have no rants and also three rants, when it comes to Emeril Lagasse.
The Rant That's Actually About Bobby Flay
All these TV chefs, particularly those who came up in Food Network when the food-entertainment field was super regulated and gatekept, you really only know what you see of them directly and what you might hear about them from other sources. They're not like regular celebs where a huge chunk of their lives is public and covered in gossip rags and such. Not to make a rant about Emeril Lagasse into a rant about Bobby Flay, but the reason I have a rant locked and loaded about Bobby Flay is that he's shown his ass in public enough for me to decide he's not someone I'd want to hang out with, even considering the above.
It's kind of a self-selection sort of deal. Because while I like food tv I don't watch much of it and haven't for probably like 15 years, you have to have been somewhat egregious, like Flay or Batali, to draw enough of my ire that I have a rant. (I don't actually have a rant about Mario Batali, I'm too scared of Eataly to try it and otherwise all I know is that he's a serial harasser.)
2. The Rant That's Actually About Fatphobia
My immediate thought when I got this ask was "I haven't thought about Emeril in years, oh man, did he do something awful?" but a quick goog and the worst I could find was that while liking Barack Obama he didn't like his attitude towards regulatory legislation. Which, you know, in the scheme of things lately is a pretty minor issue. Not that I think you're taking a personal swipe at him, but culturally it seems that as with Guy Fieri, Emeril Lagasse's cardinal sin is that he is
a) A loud personality
b) In a fat body
c) on television.
And my patience for the confusion of "tacky" and "fat" and "bad" is growing very, very thin. Especially since Emeril and Guy are the rare people who could be fat and because they have pretty wild personalities still thrive in the modern YouTube-TikTok era of food entertainment, where conventional attractiveness and thin bodies are pretty much prerequisites for fame of any kind. If you are fat on video today you truly have to be exceptional in some way and working twice as hard in order to have any success, let alone the kind of success top influencers have.
If Guy Fieri as an unknown today did what B Dylan Hollis does, he would not get the reaction B Dylan Hollis gets. No beef with Hollis, work what you've got, but if Hollis was fat he'd be at best the butt of jokes about how he'll eat anything, and the worse TikTok makes fatphobia in this country the less patience I have for it. Emeril, who also looks Faintly Ethnic and puts an emphasis on Portuguese and Creole flavors and techniques in his cooking, might very well just simply be ignored.
3. The Rant That Isn't Actually A Rant At All
Here is my memoir about Emeril Lagasse: my mother discovered Emeril's first show, Essence Of Emeril, when I was in my middle-teens; she saw it on some hotel TV while traveling, and brought it back to the family, and we all really enjoyed it. The idea of a chef having a specific spice blend or a food brand was either very new or wholesale conceptualized by Emeril, with his Essence Of Emeril spice blend, which was posted as a recipe as well as sold in stores, so you could make it at home fairly easily. It was still relatively unspicy; I could eat it, and my brother was obsessed with it, which made it a pretty useful foodstuff in our household. Our constant struggle to get my brother to expand his palate so we weren't cooking him an entirely separate dinner was real, and Essence helped with that since he'd sprinkle it on food he wouldn't normally eat, like spaghetti noodles or baked fish or porkchops, and then happily eat it.
So I have perhaps understandably fond memories of Emeril, because he was something the family agreed was enjoyable, and his recipes (while often complicated) produced pretty delicious food.
There's actually a moment in Infinite Jes, when Eddie's talking about his career, where I touch directly back to me being a fan of Essence Of Emeril and watching him make the leap to Emeril Live.
If you watch Essence of Emeril, it's your standard Chef Behind A Counter On A Soundstage show, very Julia Child -- he's boisterous and enthusiastic and he's already honing his "Bam!" schtick, but there's nothing for him to work with. He hasn't got an audience and it's almost painful to see now because you can see where he unconsciously reaches for an audience reaction. It's a relief to watch early Emeril Live because he's got a studio audience, someone to respond to, someone who reacts when he makes a loud noise or finishes a beautiful dish. I put that moment into Infinite Jes, where Eddie's trying to make a dumb little fun cooking show in college and doesn't really "break" until two stoners walk into the kitchen and he's got other people to bounce off of. In some ways, because I watched way more Emeril than I did Guy at a formative moment, Eddie's actual career owes more to Emeril than to Guy.
I think Emeril's had a rough go of it in the past decade or so; you don't hear about him much, and part of the reason is that a lot of his business ventures haven't done well. He sold most of the remaining ones to Martha Stewart and lately has focused on his restaurants, as I understand it.
In conclusion
So yeah...the only rant I have about Emeril Lagasse is actually a rant about fatphobia, I guess; if it turns out he's like a super vocal Trump supporter or something that'll be a tragedy (and given he's based out of Florida, it's not unlikely he could have uncomfortable shit to say about the pandemic, but as far as I can tell he hasn't). It seems without in-depth research that he's a decent guy whose time has somewhat passed, and who decided to focus on what he enjoys about being a chef over doing stuff he doesn't like because the money's good.
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Anthony Freese “State of Emergency”, 2023 vinyl and “Termination”, 2023 3D print
(L to R) Jay Giroux “Slow Burn”, 2023, waterborne acrylic on aluminum sign panel mounted to MDF; Ryan Lagasse, “This Isn’t Sunshine”, 2023, acrylic on wood; Blake Bailey, “Solar Pressure”, 2023, linocut relief print
Ryan Lagasse “This Isn’t Sunshine”, 2023, acrylic on wood
RJ Martin, “Cold projections”, 2023, digital print on signboard and “Truth in blue”, 2023, 3D print
Jay Giroux, “Drug Store”, 2023, acrylic on primed MDF
(left) Edgar Sanchez Cumbas, “Where There Is Brown There Is Gold”, 2023, digital print embellished with wax, acrylic, and charcoal on Arches cold press 140lb paper; (right) Joana Hila “Equilibrium of Insect & Flora”, 2023, mixed media
The works above are from Department of Contemporary Art’s latest group exhibition Degrees, organized with Tampa’s Greater Public Studio. It explores the multiple uses of the word “degrees” including in climate change, education and history. Artists included in the exhibition- Blake Bailey, Anthony Freese, Jay Giroux, Joana Hila, Ryan Lagasse, Richard Martin, Julia Parrino, Alex Roberts, and Edgar Sanchez Cumbas.
About Degrees from the gallery’s website-
In this exhibition, we unravel the layers of meaning behind ‘Degrees’. From the nuanced shades of truth that shape our perceptions to the tangible degrees of temperature that influence our environment, the exhibition creates a dynamic dialogue between different dimensions of this concept.
Situated in a pivotal battleground state, the exhibition also contemplates the intricate relationship between degrees and the pressing issue of global warming. Delving into the political discourse, we examine how degrees of belief and denial intersect, particularly in the context of climate change debates.
Furthermore, the exhibition prompts contemplation on the notion of an art degree. What does it signify? How does it define one’s creative journey? These questions guide us through an exploration of artistic qualifications and the degrees of expertise they represent.
A journey through art history reveals the connection between degrees and lines, as we delve into the associations between angles, perspectives, and the progression of artistic movements. This collection invites you to ponder how degrees of inclination can shape artistic expression and historical narratives.
Join us in this immersive exhibition, where degrees of interpretation converge, offering a multi-dimensional encounter with the concept of ‘Degrees’.
Tomorrow (10/26/23) from 6-9pm is the last chance to see the show.
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All of It
But didn’t you have the whole world, the wind and clouds – Olav H. Hauge
And the bluebirds, the worn footpaths, and the wilds for anyone brave
enough to tread; stoic mountains on the horizon that grew more powerful
in communion; a hawk circling above, kiting as if being lifted by music
and floating between sky and cloud; the lifeblood of rivers, creeks
and brooks, veins and arteries pumping back…
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