NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home for over 125 years.

Zatarain's born and raised in New Orleans.

From the spice of jambalaya to the flavors of a classic crab boil, it's a taste of New Orleans made at home.

And by Camellia Beans, rooted in New Orleans since 1923.

A family business with a devotion to beans spanning four generations.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

DOOK: This time on "A Chef's Journey," we're in the Warehouse District, visiting a restaurant that redefined Creole cuisine when it opened in 1990.

I'm joining Chef EJ Lagasse in the kitchen at Emeril's, the flagship restaurant of his father, renowned chef Emeril Lagasse.

Chef EJ, who leads the restaurant now, carries on his family's rich culinary legacy.

So let's step inside this nationally recognized restaurant to compare notes with my friend EJ.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ DOOK: Excited to be in the kitchen with Chef EJ.

EJ: It's good to see you, man.

DOOK: Same here.

Well, show me what you got going on today.

What are we cooking?

EJ: Well, we're going to do barbecue shrimp.

It's a dish that's been in this restaurant for 35 years.

I'm sure you've had it before.

I've got some beautiful Gulf shrimp.

We're going to get that rolling for you.

We're keeping this one classic.

DOOK: Oh.

EJ: This is what we're serving in the wine bar these days.

We serve it at the Meril restaurant.

You know, I mean, it's one of those that I think if we took off the menu, there'd be a little bit of a problem.

You know what I mean?

DOOK: I understand that.

Look, coming from that, that just generational aspect, people come in, certainly behind my grandmother, Chef Leah Chase.

EJ: Absolutely.

DOOK: Your father, Chef Emeril, who's just nationally known, recognized, and so to keep those classic classic, it's a little challenging, but you got it going on.

EJ: Well, I mean, you know how it is.

It's that multi-generational thing, and we got a tradition to uphold, so that's what we gotta do, you know?

DOOK: So tell me a little bit about that.

Growing up in the restaurant, I think you started at 13?

EJ: Yeah.

It was at Meril.

DOOK: Okay.

EJ: Right when we had opened Meril, yeah, so, it's a fun time.

Obviously, grew up running around even younger than that, running around here and probably making a couple of the cooks upset, bumping into them and stuff, you know?

Felt a little bad about that, but a lot of fun, you know?

DOOK: Growing up in a restaurant, this becomes the family's playground.

We might make everybody in the kitchen mad, but we certainly learn a lot... EJ: Exactly.

DOOK: ...and have a lot of fun doing it.

So right here, Chef, you're putting a good sear on your shrimp?

EJ: Just searing the shrimp, yeah.

And then I got two things for us, I got a little bit of heavy cream, and I got some of the barbecue base.

So we take, there's always been a reduction that we make with the, with the shells of the shrimp, with the heads of the shrimp.

We cook them down, Worcestershire sauce, some lemons, and trinity, and get that going.

My dad always likes to say that the shrimp have a built-in thermometer.

They start turning white, you know when to, when to flip them, when to, when to get them going.

DOOK: You can see it, actually.

EJ: You can see it, you can see it, you know?

DOOK: They'll tell you when they're ready to come over.

EJ: Exactly.

Just a little bit of salt on top there.

DOOK: What an amazing kitchen, chef.

EJ: Oh, thank you.

DOOK: I know you just did a remodel when you took over, not only to keep the classics classic, but you're also putting your spin on a lot of these dishes as well.

EJ: We got two restaurants here.

We got the wine bar, and we have Emeril's, of course.

And we have some fun with it.

We play the classics in the wine bar and, and you know, throw some fun things on the menu there.

And then, the team and I get together, and we have a fun time with the tasting menu for Emeril's, and we go from there.

It's been great.

And Dad was here the other day.

DOOK: Uh-huh.

Told me to tell you "hi" by the way, and we were talking about barbecue shrimp, and I was like, "Okay, well, maybe we'll do a little bit of a bigger version of it or something like that."

And he was like, "I don't think you can touch that one."

And I was just like, "Okay, you know what?"

DOOK: Don't touch that one.

EJ: He's like, "Don't touch that one."

DOOK: Play around with everything else, but leave this one.

EJ: Exactly, exactly.

DOOK: We talk about it so many times.

Not only you're cooking with color, you're cooking with texture.

You see that nice char and sear on that shrimp?

That's going to give you that texture that you look... oh, that reduction.

I know there's some love in this reduction.

EJ: Yeah, for sure.

No joke there.

So yeah, we'll just let them cook kind of on that other side.

We'll let them cook in that reduction.

And then we've got the heavy cream there.

We'll wait on that for just a second and let that keep going.

I'm going to bring some butter over because that's going to be our next thing right after we put this heavy cream in there, so.

DOOK: One thing I love to touch on is coming up behind a, a chef of, of Emeril, your father, with such nationally recognized, just stature, how is, is it pressure?

Is it inspiration?

Is it a little bit of both?

How has that been?

EJ: I mean, yeah, sure.

All of that's a part of it.

But as you said, it's, it's food of love, and we have a great time doing it together, and look, it's my dad.

DOOK: Yeah.

EJ: At the end of the day, so.

DOOK: That's the key, it's family.

EJ: It's family.

DOOK: This, this, this is home.

This is actually the first home.

The home away from here is our vacation home.

EJ: Yeah.

DOOK: In this family... EJ: Exactly.

DOOK: Just hearing that story, growing up same with me, man, it impacts.

EJ: Yeah, you, you know exactly how it is.

Just add a little butter to it.

Obviously, we put the base in there.

We creamed it out a little bit.

And then my dad always likes to say he likes to have it the color of a New Orleans cup of coffee.

DOOK: Okay.

EJ: So that's the goal with that.

DOOK: I mean, that rich reduction.

This is... EJ: It's pretty rich.

DOOK: This is that.

EJ: And this is, look, this is the exact same way this dish has been made for 35 years.

DOOK: Now, here's a tough question.

EJ: Tell me.

DOOK: That growing up, did your dad think, or did you think, you were going to find your way home in the restaurants, in the kitchen?

EJ: He never pressured me.

Never, never said, "Oh, you got to do this, or you got to do that."

I was like, "Hey, Dad, I want to be a chef."

He's like, "Okay, you sure?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And then, and then, you know, we went from there.

And that was the, that's been the beauty of it, so I think that that, had he probably tried to pressure me, I probably wouldn't have wanted to do it out of rebellion or something, you know?

I'd have been like, "No," you know, that's, that's not for me," or whatever, and probably wouldn't have done it.

But you know, I think it's because that he does everything in this restaurant, and has for 35 years with such passion that it was, it's really hard for me not to want to get involved, you know?

DOOK: Yeah.

EJ: I think that that's the way that it is.

And growing up, I just thought it was the coolest thing that my dad was a chef.

We've just got the shrimp here on the plate.

We've got that lovely barbecue shrimp sauce.

And that's it.

It's simple, you know?

DOOK: Yeah.

EJ: And I think some of the best things in cooking, and the best things in life, are pretty simple.

DOOK: But you know in New Orleans, when we eating barbecue shrimp, not only is it the reduction and the shrimp, but we can't leave all that sauce on this plate.

EJ: Oh, no, no, no.

DOOK: So there's something you bringing to this plate that we're going to sop it up, enjoy it, and make sure we pay homage to every bit of that reduction that you... Oh, man, you talking about making chef... EJ: I know, I got a couple biscuits for you, buddy.

DOOK: Oh, yes, indeed.

EJ: Better than any spoon.

Just a little chive there for you.

DOOK: This looks amazing.

I have to dig in to this, chef.

EJ: Do it.

Let's go, man.

DOOK: I'm coming in.

This is just awesome.

Oh, man.

I understand why your father said, "Do not touch this dish."

EJ: Don't touch it.

Don't touch it.

35 years, that's it, right there.

DOOK: Well, chef, it's been such an honor, my friend.

EJ: Great to see you, pal.

DOOK: Thanks for having me.

EJ: Thanks so much.

DOOK: Continue all the great work, not only that you're doing in the restaurant, but also in the community.

EJ: Thank you, pal.

DOOK: I appreciate it.

Now, I got to somehow get back in the kitchen and make something from the inspiration that chef gave me.

It's going to be a hard job to do, but I'm going to try to make sure I get those flavors right.

And this is beautiful.

Welcome to my kitchen, where inspiration and creation come together in a celebration of culture.

Today, we're talking legacy, building upon that foundation.

And one dish that speaks to me is deviled eggs, right?

It has that foundational aspect, but the next generation can lift it up.

So we have these beautiful eggs that we boiled 20 minutes, put them in the ice bath, peeled them.

Before we start with this deviled egg, I want to do some candied bacon.

I have this beautiful bacon that we cut, and we did a half a lardon, right?

You cut it in a lardon, which is just a thin strip, and then we came right in half.

So we're going to let this go on a low to medium heat.

You know, the thing about deviled eggs is every party, every celebration, you always enjoyed, and you just came, and you had those deviled eggs.

Have all our yolks in the bowl, and as you can start to hear, our bacon's working.

What you want to do is just to move it just around, right, so you can have that fat just start to release.

So while that's working, we'll start to break up these yolks.

So this is where we want it.

We'll add some of our mayonnaise to this dish.

We'll have some relish.

And of course, I'm not using it all, because we can always add as we go, right?

You add a little bit, you mix it up, then you come back.

A little dab of yellow mustard.

Then we hit it with a little salt.

And you can see that consistency we looking for.

At this stage, what we're going to do is we're going to check on our lardons here, and you can see that color, right?

That's when you know you're getting to that crispy texture.

When you have that excess oil, you want to drain it, because when the honey goes in, you want that caramelization just to happen right then and there.

So we'll add in a drizzle of this honey.

And that's what you want to happen, that caramelization process.

Move it around.

You can see how much it reduced here.

So this is roughly one minute out, and we'll take that off.

But we'll come here, add this to this piping bag, open it up, and we're going right in.

And we're going right in each one, so go on top.

And I think we might have did it.

Put that on the side.

So now we have everything ready.

We have our candied bacon.

We have our caviar.

We have our Cajun chips.

Now we just have to put it together.

So I'll start with this bacon, and we just pick a side, right on side there, right on here.

Then I'll move over to this caviar, right on there.

You're gonna get the salt content of this caviar.

And then we get a Cajun chip.

That comes right on in.

And I'll start to plate this guy up.

One right there, sure.

And I have a bed of chips on there, because as you work with deviled eggs, they tend to slide.

And that, my friends, is the foundation of deviled eggs, but we're putting a twist on this legacy.

As we continue to talk legacy, one dish speaks to that.

We're talking calas, a dish that's been around for many generations.

Instead of that sweet beignet rice fritter, we're doing it a savory one, with a little play on shrimp creole.

So we'll start by making that shrimp dressing first.

We'll start by adding our butter, let that melt, start to get warm a little bit.

As we talk about legacy and the building upon foundations, you respect that foundation, so of course, we're using the trinity here.

Start to sweat our onions.

(sizzling).

Have a little bit of celery going in.

Have a little bit of our bell pepper.

And you're just sweating that down.

To that, we'll add in a little salt.

We'll add in a little pepper.

I have a little dried thyme.

That seasoning starts to pick up.

Soon as you smell it, it hits.

That's when you know you're working.

Now I'll add in a little garlic here.

You're going through the French Quarter back in the day by the St.

Louis Cathedral, and you're hearing, "Calas, calas, Belle tout chaud."

"Nice and hot, come get it while it's hot."

Those traditions, those street vendors, and now we pay homage to that, moving it forward.

Of course, we're going to add our spin to it, but you have to recognize what started everything.

To this, we're going to add in, I did a rough chop on these shrimp.

I'll just add a little bit more butter in there to help those shrimp work.

Now, the last thing we're going to add to this dish is a little bit of paprika for color.

Right, I want when you bite into that calas, you see that rice, but you start to see this beautiful color.

This is our play on that tradition, right?

We're turning this into a shrimp Creole savory calas, if you will.

If you're making calas, you're using leftover rice.

So we have a bowl of leftover rice here, and we're going to add that mixture right on top.

And we're going right in.

Mix that in.

Now, this has to cool just a little.

As we're making calas, that recipe has eggs, and you don't want the eggs to scramble in here.

So we're going to put this in a refrigerator for 10 minutes, cool it down.

So now we're building the bases of the calas, right?

We have flour, and in there I have some warm water.

You want to activate that yeast.

I'll stir that guy in.

While that's working, we have a little bit of baking powder that we add to it.

Mix that in well.

To that dry, I'll add a little bit of salt.

And now I have our cool rice mixture with the shrimp.

To this, we'll add two eggs.

(eggs cracking).

And we'll work those in.

And now we'll temper this warm water right in, just a little.

Mix it in just to temper it a little bit so we don't have a problem with our eggs.

And that warm water is just to start to activate that yeast.

And as you're pouring it in, you'll smell the yeast working, right?

You'll think you're making bread here, but we're making some beautiful calas fritters.

That's mixed perfectly.

This is the texture you're looking for.

Now is when you start to add in your flour mixture here.

So we'll add in just a little, and then we just fold it in.

But you just take your time, fold it in.

Take your time, fold it in.

And I think that is going to do it right there.

Pasty almost, that's what you're looking for.

All right.

This is done.

It's ready to go.

Cover this with plastic wrap, put it in a refrigerator, let this sit for 35 minutes, and let that yeast start to work.

I have one down here that's been working already, and I'll show you exactly what we're looking for.

You see those beautiful bubbles?

That's what we're looking for.

That's the yeast working.

That's when we know it's going to be airy when we go to fry it.

Now that we have our calas mixture done, we're going to start to deep-fry them.

You have a little scoop here.

And this is the right size.

You don't want to go over.

You want to make sure it's just about an ounce, and you're coming right in, and that's what we're looking for.

Voila.

And as they'll brown, they'll start to turn themselves.

Sometimes they need a little help.

They rise to the top, they're airy.

You know they're cooking.

Now you're looking for that beautiful golden complexion that you're looking for.

This one, I'll help, just give him a little turn.

That one turned on its own.

This is right where we want it, and we come out with it.

Let them dry right here.

Now, if we did the sweet kind, right when you come out, you're going to hit this with some powdered sugar.

But today, as we put a spin on this legacy, we're going to serve this with some Creole sauce.

Pay homage to our legacy, right on top.

Continue to twist it up, add your take on it for the next generation, but make sure the foundation is the foundation.

As we celebrate legacy, one dish comes to mind, gumbo.

But we're going to call this one, Not Your Grandmother's Gumbo, because we're putting a little modern twist on it.

We're going to start by sweating this meat.

I'm adding in just a little bit of vegetable oil.

Now, as you know, that sausage is going to render its own fat.

So we're going to use two sausages as we sweat and let that fat render.

We're going to start off with the chaurice sausage, right?

That's our New Orleans hot sausage.

So we'll let this start to brown a little bit, work in this pan.

We're going to make a pretty fine roux with this.

I'll add in just a little oil right here, because now I'm going to sweat our smoked sausage.

So I want to make sure I have enough fat left over so I can build the bases of the roux that we're going to make a little later.

So I'm going to save that beautiful oil that we have.

I want you to see it just coming out.

Look at that color on that oil.

Now we're going to save just a little in this pan.

So we'll start by adding in some of our onions.

We'll add in some of our celery here.

You're cooking at a lower heat.

You can turn that heat down.

You already rendered that fat out of that sausage.

Now you just want to sweat those vegetables mixed in with it.

We'll add in some of our green bell pepper.

And for the sweetness and color, I'm going to add in some of this red bell pepper.

We'll add a little salt to enhance that a little bit, a little dry thyme, and of course, you know it, at the end, we're putting in a little bit of our garlic.

Now that this is sweating down right where we want it, we're going to put this to the side.

This is going to go in the refrigerator and cool for 30 minutes.

I have one that's been cooled already, and now we'll start to work this chicken.

As you can see, we have this chicken breast here.

We thinly sliced, did a little pounding, just to make it flat, right?

This is what you're looking for.

Here we'll do a little seasoning on it, and then we're just going to work that stuffing right inside.

Roll this up.

Give that a good roll here.

Flip that guy there.

Roll this up.

Give that a good roll here.

Flip that there.

And we have to wrap it.

Come right under.

And I always like to flip it, because you want to see the part where you need to put that string on.

And again, just a, a shoestring tie, not too tight.

Coming right over.

Shoestring tie.

To this small pot, I'm going to add just a little bit of vegetable oil here.

We're not looking to cook this chicken.

We're looking just to get a little color on it.

And to help with that, we're going to add a little salt, a little pepper.

And you know, as you're making this dish, and you're playing with the foundation, right, you would ask yourself, what would those who came before you think?

But I'm sure they'll probably think we're crazy.

Gumbo we're stuffing chicken, sausage stuffing.

What in the world is this guy making?

And you can start to see that element of the white coming up.

That's when you know it's cooking up.

That's when you know you're starting to get a little color at the bottom, and that's when we'll start to flip this thing over.

(sizzling).

Just getting a little bit of color on it.

We're not talking gumbo unless we're talking okra, so I add a little bit of okra on each side, right?

Right in here, and we'll go right in there and right in here.

We're going right into our 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

We got to get back to make the foundation of a gumbo.

We got to talk about the roux.

Certainly, you saw we saved that oil renderings, and we're going to add that back here.

So I'm heating that oil back up.

I have my flour right here.

We're going to toast it.

You want to toast that flour.

As we're looking for a, as we use, we're looking for a peanut butter roux, right?

We're not going too dark.

We're not getting that nutty flavor roux.

And now we're just getting that toasty roux coming through.

And as we get closer, I have my stock handy, so you just add a little at a time and work it in.

You finish every gumbo with a little filé.

So I have a little filé powder that we put in here.

To that filé, I added a little paprika.

That's going to enhance that color, right?

You're looking at this color, it's not right where we want it to be, but when we add this, paprika, filé, and I'm really just creating a paste here, because when I add that paste back to here, that's where a lot of that peanut butter color's going to come out.

And now we just start to work this in, and you'll see that color.

Look at that.

Right before your eyes, you're getting that beautiful color that you're looking for.

Filé powder is the ground sassafras leaf.

It's a thickening agent that we use, and you can see now we're getting to that velvety consistency of a gumbo that you're looking for.

So this is done.

It's perfect time for us to go and check our chicken.

Grab a little board to rest our meat on.

And when you look at this beautiful char that we have on this okra, that chicken, that browning that we have in there.

Let that rest just right here.

As we go here and let this rest, we'll get our knife.

Of course, we'll untie just the loops.

That comes right off like that.

We just want to give a nice little slice right down here and see what we have right in that middle.

Just look at that, the stuffing inside, your chicken and sausage.

What we're going to do here is take our beautiful gravy.

Go right in the middle, and this is just to give you a little taste, a little hint of that gumbo.

Put that one right here, and certainly, we got to give you a little bit of that charred okra coming through.

This dish, Not Your Grandmother's Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, pays homage to the legacy, but also puts a modern twist for the next generation.

So we'll see you next time on "A Chef's Journey."

NARRATOR: In his new cookbook, Chef Dook Chase explores the legendary dishes and unique food traditions of New Orleans.

This companion to "A Chef's Journey," with all the recipes from the series and more than 125 color photos, is available for $32.99 plus shipping.

To order, call 1-800-815-3153 or purchase online at wyes.org.

DOOK: We'll see.

It's just starting, we'll see.

We got, we got what?

Seven more to go?

Five more to go?

It can go downhill fairly quickly.

WAYNE: Some of the finest oysters you got in the Gulf Coast right here.

Locally homegrown.

That's our headers right there.

It don't get better than that.

DOOK: Oh, you can't taste anything... WAYNE: With a cup of coffee.

DOOK: With a cup of coffee, I love it.

Breakfast of champions, all local.

This is one way to get your day going, highlighting that seafood.

Oysters are perfect.

That saltiness coming through.

Man, you just started my day.

CLEO: We just got critters everywhere.

We got duck, rabbits, quail, pheasant.

She said, "Go get that gumbo pot."

I said, "Oh, no way in the world."

She said, "That's it."

And she threw everything in, and I said, "Now what do we call this?"

She said, "Critter gumbo."

VINCE: At the end of the day, a good farmer always puts his tractor up.

DOOK: Okay.

Well, I'm going to get on this tractor, and I'm taking it all the way to the kitchen.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: For more information about "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey," visit wyes.org.

Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home.

Rooted in the city's rich culinary traditions, Zatarain's is born and raised in New Orleans.

From rice mixes to frozen meals, it's an authentic taste of New Orleans.

And by Camellia Beans.

You shouldn't rush a red bean.

Let it cook, then you can gather around with family and share in its distinct culture.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

♪ ♪