In a city of many great restaurants, I had the most memorable meal of my life

Oysters Rockefeller at Antoine’s. James Beard winner Alon Shaya’s buttermilk fried chicken at Miss River. Gumbo at Brigtsen’s in the company of Frank Brigtsen, considered a father figure among New Orleans chefs. There is a point during a week of Crescent City fine dining when you, a) think you’ll never taste anything better, and b) feel as though you may never eat again.

Not long after taking a seat at Emeril’s, it becomes apparent I ain’t seen nothing yet. This is the start of an evening that lives rent-free in my mind to this day. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever eat another meal as memorable.

Dining rooms have various personalities, from casual to cool, formal to frenetic. Here, fancy is one description, but rather than your tablemates being the objects of your attention it is, instead, the restaurant’s inner life.

The glassed-in kitchen at Emeril’s in New Orleans.

A glass wall displaying the kitchen provides a sense of theatre. There are even tables close to the glass with both chairs facing the white-aproned staff moving around forest green stoves, copper frying pans hanging in formation above their heads. It’s more like a sleek laboratory than a busy kitchen.

This format was the idea of executive chef EJ Lagasse, who, at age 19, took the reins from Emeril, who is his father. Emeril opened this restaurant in 1989. EJ closed it during 2023 then had it rebuilt.

We take our seats and order drinks – the Emeril’s reserve martini, served with a bump of caviar, is hard to resist – when an invitation is extended to visit the kitchen. There, set out on a table of ice are tonight’s ingredients: oysters, tuna, baby carrots, white asparagus and many more. This, the chef de cuisine tells us, is the season’s best.

Executive chef EJ Lagasse (left) and his father, Emeril.

“We had two weeks of R&D [research and development] to come up with the menu before we reopened with this new concept,” he says as we eat a cucumber cup filled with some of those seasonal ingredients. That new concept is a tasting menu, featuring reconfigured Emeril’s classics.

A round of warm cornbread is delivered. Think bread is for amateurs? This isn’t ordinary bread, and it becomes irresistible when a staff member rolls a cart to our table. On it is a glistening mound of butter. Because the Lagasses could never find any they liked, EJ tasked his cheese importer with finding the best French product. This butter mountain, as they call it, comes from a producer in Lyon.

Our server takes a spoon and creates a perfect curl and places it delicately on a separate plate. When this ritual plays out throughout the night, the look on diners’ faces is pure delight. We slather it on until all traces of bread and butter are gone.

The dining room at Emeril’s.

Then comes round one: smoked salmon cheesecake topped with caviar, dill and ribbons of edible gold. The dish is pure elegance; the sweetness of the cream cheese offset by the briny pops of caviar and the silky salmon.

Course after outstanding course follows: oyster stew with Herbsaint, the New Orleans-distilled absinthe substitute, seared foie gras and hon-shimeji mushroom; trout almondine; Maine lobster gumbo; a beef and daube glace. All are refined takes on local classics.

Then another gueridon trolley is wheeled to the table. On it are sculptural bowls piled with fluffy ice. Hansen’s Sno-Bliz first served sno-balls to New Orleanians in 1939, and lining up for the store’s opening every March is as New Orleans as Mardi Gras.

Trout Almondine.

Emeril’s uses a Japanese machine to shave the ice, but the three syrups come from Hansen’s. “This is one of their signature flavours, and the flavour they sell the most of,” the server says, holding up an ornate bottle of cream of nectar. “It’s also EJ’s favourite.”

It wouldn’t be right to choose anything else. The ice melts on the tongue; the syrup’s flavour is reminiscent of creaming soda.

Then it’s the final course of banana cream pie. When the last skerrick has been spooned off the plate and the remaining wine sipped, four hours have passed.

Just the tip would have paid my rent, but Emeril’s is one of those once-in-a-normal-person’s-lifetime experiences. If you find yourself in New Orleans, grab a booking and laissez les bons temps rouler – let the good times roll.

THE DETAILS

VISIT
Emeril’s was named fifth-best restaurant in the US by the editors of Food & Wine magazine in April. It is open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday. See emerilsrestaurant.com

FLY
United flies from Australian capital cities to New Orleans daily via either Los Angeles or San Francisco. See united.com

STAY
Hotel Indigo New Orleans – French Quarter is within walking distance of the city’s main attractions, including Emeril’s. Rooms from $US126 (A$193) a night. See ihg.com

The writer was a guest of New Orleans & Co.

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