38
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
MAY | JUNE 2014
the
Chef
issue
O
ur role in Emeril’s test kitchen is to
channel Emeril and his ideas into recipes.
We support all of his projects, from cookbooks
(there are 18 of them) and TV appearances to
his product lines. We also translate what the
chefs de cuisine create in his restaurants into
recipes you can make at home.
I love my job!
The Emeril you see on TV is the same
Emeril we work with in person. He is always
talking about food. When he comes back
from a trip, he doesn’t just talk about what
he saw — he always comes home talking
about what he ate.
(I’m the same way – Tim.)
Emeril is always brainstorming and sharing
ideas for new recipes. We also have a huge
library of cookbooks in our kitchen for
research, and we also eat out frequently, read
food magazines and blogs to stay current.
We like to taste everything we can. And,
besides, as any chef will tell you, sometimes
it’s just nice to eat something that someone
else prepared. We’re in the process of
updating the nearly 10,000 recipes that we
already have online at Emerils.com. There
are recipes on the site that go as far back as
Essence of Emeril, the first show he did on
the Food Network.What people ate in 1998
isn’t necessarily what they want to eat today.
Years ago it was more about the exotic. Now
it’s more about seasonal and local.
tHere Are tHree oF Us In tHe
test KItCHen eVerY DAY, stACeY
MeYer, KAMIlI HeMpHIll AnD Me.
I started working with Emeril in 2000. I’d
published my own cookbook,
Charlotte’s
Table
, a few years earlier, and was working
as a private chef in New York City until I
decided to move back home. I’d left the city
to train at The French Culinary Institute,
but like every New Orleans girl, I secretly
wanted to come back home.
Stacey met Emeril at the Food Network
where she was a chef, food stylist and the
buyer for all the shows. Emeril recruited her
eight years ago. Stacey went to the Culinary
Institute of America and wrote a great
cookbook called
New Orleans Kitchens.
Kamili is a graduate of New England
Culinary Institute. She worked at Emeril’s
restaurants NOLA and Emeril’s for several
years right out of culinary school, and later
as a Sous Chef for Anne Kearney at Peristyle
— another of Chef Emeril’s protégés —
before returning to the company as part of
the Culinary Team. Kamili is from Jackson,
Mississippi; Stacey is from New Orleans,
like me.
tHere Are no BorInG DAYs In tHe
test KItCHen.
We all like to shop, so we take turns going
to the Rouses just a few blocks away. They
are always stocking new things on the
shelves, which gives us inspiration. And we
each like to cook different things, and favor
certain techniques, so we each approach
Behind the Scenes
Emeril's Test K itchen
by
Chef CharlotteMartory—Senior CulinaryWriter/Recipe Developer &CulinaryTeamManager
As told toTimAcosta—Rouses Marketing Director
+
photos by
Frank Aymami
