BAM!

....do my beady eyes see my first-ever Food network hero Emeril Lagasse is making a bit of comeback???:

“We’re reaching that point in the 25- or 30-year generation gap where people are going back to see what their parents were doing. Watching stuff like this online feels really good. It’s camaraderie around loving the same thing delivered by a real person.”

The comments on the video clips reflect a certain mood about the cultural moment. Many call Emeril the hero America needs right now. Others regard people who said they were in the audience back in the day the way an earlier generation revered Woodstock attendees.

And then there are comments like this, from Max McDulin, 29, a logistics manager in Cincinnati: “Emeril is everything about masculinity that is good.”

In an interview, he said Emeril’s mix of machismo and kindness is an antidote to toxic masculinity.

“I think that a lot of us are craving some positive masculinity in our lives again. He expresses that really well,” said Mr. McDulin, who learned to cook from his grandmother, who always had Food Network on. “I’d bang on the pots and pans when I was 8 or 9 years old and say, ‘Bam!’”

The reaction of Mr. Lagasse’s guests is part of the appeal, he added. “You know you would walk away from that show believing it’s important to believe in yourself.”

I mean that all seems like a lot to put on one (awesome!) guy but let me join the (deserved!) Emeril loe with this from 2011:

Somehow over the years he kind of became a punchline or a cartoon (prolly got verbally knocked by Bourdain, like everybody else), so it's easy to forget how great Emeril's live show was.  He was incredibly entertaining, had a live band, created catchphrases that people still use today whether or not they've ever seen the show, the set looked really cool (a big part of enjoying a cooking show, to me) and, what's even MORE forgotten, he's a great chef - remember, he blew up out of New Orleans, not exactly a place to get known as a chef if you're always burning the toast.  I'm enjoying watching reruns of the show now on The Cooking Channel (the real Food Network now that the Food Network has become the Show Me Your Titties Network); over ten years ago, the first show I fell in love with upon discovering the Food Network was Emeril's (made my shows of the decade list!)