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The Effect of Large Bodies of Lesser Orbits: Emeril as a Mega Rock Star Gravity, Mass, Emeril and the Food Network meet Chelsea Market

Gravity, Mass, Emeril and the Food Network meet Chelsea Market

Anyone who switches on the Food Network in the evenings knows that during prime time it is the All Emeril Channel. With an enthusiastic, infomercial-sounding audience cheering him on, Emeril conjures up a variety of dishes, lavishly praising this and that ingredient and urging the audience to cook and to eat more and more. And they do.

I wanna be a rock star
Emeril takes the concept of a cooking show to the next level. For those of us who grew up watching the Galloping Gourmet and then Jacques Pepin, Emeril is something like Elvis. He is the Rock Star of American food.

A man who at one time was headed for a musical career, Emeril was, like Elvis, a lover of food. Now he has managed to put all of his urges together to create the ultimate Celebrity Chef, a figure that many Americans can relate to, aspire to, adore and imitate.

For those who dream of culinary rock-stardom, Emeril is both an icon and an impossible act to follow. When he is on stage in his television kitchen, accompanied by his band, his personality is so huge that there is no room for anyone else. The glam life of a rock star chef seems like non-stop entertainment. But cooking in a professional kitchen is never a one man show, and aspiring chefs need to understand that in order to play Elvis, they will have to sing a lot of blues before they rock and roll.

Once the staid fare of TV for housewives, cooking shows are now an event. And with celebrity chefs all over the country and more and more emerging personalities filling the airwaves, cooking is becoming another vocation altogether.

style="font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: "Century Gothic"; color: navy; ">Rock Stars as Role Models
The upside to all of this is multifold. First, there is a renewed interest in cooking at home, an interest that for the last generation or so had waned dramatically. Second, the focus that Emeril and others have put on fresh ingredients has spawned many cottage industries and has awakened interest in green markets. Third, the culinary arts and the vocation of cooking have been raised in status, to judge by the increased number of culinary schools dotting the academic map. These are all positive trends.

So, you’re a
rock star….
And then there are the effects of Rock-stardom. Like any TV personality who films live in New York, Emeril has a devoted fan base. His personality is big – so big that it has its own gravitational pull, and quite possibly its own zip code. This is not a criticism – it is what happens when a big personality is on TV all the time, when a show is filmed live, and when the show’s star invites loyal fans to come live on location to share the joy.

Who would turn down a chance to be there LIVE when everything comes together in the kitchen, at the precise moment when Emeril goes into his frenetic yet hypnotic zen state of food appreciation?

Far from the Maddening Fans
It’s not important where Emerils fans come from. What’s important is that they come, and more so that they come to Chelsea Market to gawk and awe at what they see. Like the Seinfeld Soup Nazi and the famed no-name diner, people come to see what they saw on television.(There are tours around town aimed specifically at connecting TV viewers to the hallowed locations they have seen on their favorite shows.) Trying to catch a glimpse of make believe is a natural process and no one should criticize anyone for it. It is one of the side effects of being a city known for food & commerce, gluttony & egocentrism. So, here they come, the Emeril faithful, eager to sneak a peek at the locations from where Emeril dishes out his particular brands of food intensity and culinary lore. The fans have been Emerilized, like onions in a hot pan. They are well seasoned and are ready to take on the main ingredients.

Gravity Takes Hold
The effect that this Emerilization has had on the Food Network, viewers and Chelsea Market is measured by the gravity of Emerils’s mass appeal. He clearly has had a major impact on the way that cooking shows are presented on television. He has his own band. Let me repeat – he had his own band. In the TV Land of my memory, only Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Arsenio Hall have had their own, smokin’ bands. I have probably missed a few personalities here, but the whole idea of having a band in the kitchen is an amazing one. It also sets the entertainment bar high. How do other chefs compete? They have to be huge personalities. They have to create their own gravitational pull in order not to be sucked into his. There just aren’t enough back up bands to go around.

Chelsea Market, with its food-anchors, is being sucked into the whole Food Network universe, at the center of which is the Mega Rock Star, Emeril. Many of the stores in the market are more like gift shops than real food shops. It is becoming a mall. And it is clear from some of the service staff working there that they deal to a large extent with tourists. The market is turning into a sideshow on the way to the elevators that ascend to cable heaven. And the prices reflect this.

Tags:   chelsea market, elvia, emeril, food network