Emeril’s Florida: Miami Episode Airs Sunday

Sure, Emeril Lagasse is best known for his ties to New Orleans. But the chef, who was born in Massachusetts to a Canadian father and Portuguese mother, clearly loves Florida.

His Cooking Channel show Emeril’s Florida has documented the celebrity chef’s travels throughout the Sunshine State in search of the best culinary masterpieces and most authentic down-home spots.

This Sunday, Emeril heads to Miami, where he visits Vizcaya and the Miami Seaquarium before spending some time with three of our city’s finest chefs.

First Emeril pays a call to 1500 Degrees’ Paula DaSilva, where they whip

up a clam dish. Then the king of “Bam!” heads to Coral Gables to try

some of Cindy Hutson’s crisp breadfish tacos at Ortanique on the Mile.

Emeril finishes his Miami trip at Area 31, where he dines on chef

Michael Reidt’s Mediterranean-inspired seafood.

We asked Chef

Reidt what it was like filming with Emeril. He told Short Order

that the chef is “as down-to-earth as it gets.”

Maybe it was the common

bond (both toques are Massachusetts natives), but Reidt was impressed

with the fact that after all the fame, Lagasse hasn’t forgotten his

roots or his passion.

“What was most exciting was that he’s a chef. Therefore he thinks, moves, and operates just like me. He just let the ideas

of the shoot flow instead of trying to stage things. When he saw what I

had laid out to cook, he asked which one we were going to shoot. I

replied, ‘All of them.’ He gave that grin we all love and said, ‘OK,

let’s do it.'”

So let’s do it! Emeril’s Florida‘s Miami episode airs Sunday, March 31, at 10:30 a.m. on the Cooking Channel. Bam!

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