A Legend Reborn
Emeril Lagasse takes over
the helm at Delmonico.
WHAT: Delmonico
CUISINE: Creole
WHEN: Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly, brunch Sunday
WHERE: 1300 St. Charles Ave., 525-4973
CARDS: Major
Any dinner cooked by Emeril Lagasse provokes a glimmer of expectation. Widely
considered the hottest chef in New Orleans and perhaps the nation, Lagasse has
opened his fourth and latest restaurant on St. Charles Avenue in an attempt to
bring classic Creole cuisine back to Delmonico, which was in business from 1895
to 1997. The building has gone through an extensive renovation and now features
an elegant, classic design that is in keeping with the building's historic
nature.
"This was a 16-month renovation, and we had to rebuild it from the ground floor up," said Lagasse, 39, a few days before Delmonico reopened this
month. "We're going to have classic Creole cuisine presented in the
old-fashioned way, with a lot of tableside service from the gueridon."
The Fall River, Mass., native has 450 employees helping run his
various operations, and he was the perfect person to undertake the
revitalization of Delmonico. Lagasse loves to have fun, and he says that food
is the single most important thing in his life. At 25, Lagasse was hired by
Ella Brennan to succeed Paul Prudhomme at Commander's Palace, and his star has
risen ever since. Within a year of opening his namesake Emeril's in 1990,
Esquire named it the best new restaurant in America.
At his newest place, you can expect to find a hit parade of
classics, some more French than Creole, done in the Emeril style, which means
great taste and presentation. Among the dinner appetizers, which range from $8
to $12, are turtle soup laced with sherry; shrimp remoulade; oysters en
brochette with lemon butter; Emeril's famous barbecue shrimp served with garlic
bread; foie gras pate served with red onions, cornichons, Cumberland sauce and
croutons; and a classic caviar service complete with toast points and all the
trimmings.
The salads are gorgeous in the Emeril tradition and include a
Delmonico salad of lettuces and assorted steamed vegetables with a tangy
vinaigrette, a classic Caesar (prepared tableside for two), and fried green
tomatoes and lump crabmeat served with remoulade sauce.
Entrees are highlighted by individual beef Wellington with a
mushroom foie gras duxelles in puff pastry with a classic Perigourdin sauce;
veal Marcelle, named for Marcelle Bienvenu, Lagasse's co-author on his latest
two cookbooks; crabmeat Imperial; seared duck breast over ham hock-smothered
greens, garnished with duck confit and duck crackling corn sticks; and chicken
Delmonico slow-roasted with herbs, morepoix, essence of truffle and shaved
black truffles, carved tableside for two and served with mashed potatoes and
gravy (you need to allow one hour preparation time because everything is cooked
to order).
"The only thing we have in the freezer is ice cream," says Emeril.
"Everything is made fresh and from scratch." His chef de cuisine at Delmonico
is Dwight Sherman, whose culinary roots run deep. Sherman started at Arnaud's,
worked at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Kolb's and Emeril's, where he worked
under Lagasse for more than five years.
Each of the dining rooms at Delmonico is distinctively different.
The building, constructed in 1890 as a one-story dairy creamer, gained a second
story by 1911. Five years later, the top floor was converted into a residence
when Anthony LaFranca married Marie Masset (LaFranca was handed the torch of
ownership in 1911). After his death, his widow ran the restaurant and
commissioned the large John McCrady painting that hung behind the bar. In the
1970s, Marie passed on the torch to her daughters, Angie Brown and Rose
Dietrich.
The formal residential names of the rooms remained: the Anthony
Room, which overlooks St. Charles Avenue and has a stately, decidedly old New
Orleans feeling; the Rose Room, which is accented in delicate rose hues and
dressed up with beautiful, hand-embroidered curtains and graceful chandeliers
that resemble floral bouquets; and the Crystal Room, which is considerably
smaller and very elegant and which overlooks the wine cellar with a stunning
Italian door and crystal chandelier. Displayed on the first level is
Foodscape, an oil-on-canvas by still-life artist Amy Weisskopf
showcasing the elements of Creole cuisine.
Emeril's eyes sparkle when he talks about food and his newest
project. "I wanted to bring back some of the classic items from the menu. I'm
just crazy about Angie and Rose," he says. Certainly, he has paid tribute to
those who served nearly every old-line New Orleans family in Delmonico's golden
era. And thanks to the powerhouse chef from Fall River, a new era at the
century-old restaurant has begun.
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