Sometimes even the world’s best-known chefs need to return to their roots, and that includes Emeril Lagasse. The chef’s latest endeavor, 34 Restaurant & Bar, opened in New Orleans’ Warehouse District last month near his Grand Award–winning flagship Emeril’s, the restaurant that solidified Lagasse’s place as an icon of Creole cooking. But this new restaurant represents a significant shift: Lagasse opened it in homage to his late mother, Hilda Lagasse, and her Portuguese heritage, trading the andouille sausage for chouriço.
The new wine bar was brought to life with the help of Lagasse’s 21-year-old son, E.J. Lagasse, who has taken on a larger role at his father’s New Orleans restaurants over the past few years, helping with menu development at Emeril’s and now overseeing the kitchen there as patron chef. The new restaurant’s name nods to the full names of this father-and-son duo—Emeril John Lagasse III and IV—and their family legacy.
Inspired by the dining scenes of Lisbon and Porto, 34’s menu is filled with familiar favorites from Portuguese cooking: jamón croquetes with dollops of piri piri aioli, caldo verde simmered with smoky chouriço, and pastéis de bacalhau (crispy cod fritters). The Lagasses and their staff took several trips to Portugal to gather recipes and ideas, leading to dishes less often seen in the U.S., like a cataplana fish stew with hay-smoked halibut or porco Alentejana (braised pork with clams, a dish from Portugal’s Alentejo region). There’s also the pica pau appetizer; Portuguese for “woodpecker,” this dish features small beef filet cuts drenched in a mustard and white wine sauce, and, true to its name, it’s eaten with toothpicks.
The Lagasses have also prepared a selection of shareable arroz dishes for the table, including a duck rice laced with chouriço and lardo and a classic Spanish paella studded with rabbit and Gulf shrimp.
[article-img-container][src=2024-11/restaurant-news-emeril-lagasse-34-restaurant-dishes-111424_1600.jpg] [credit= (Courtesy of 34 Restaurant and Bar)] [alt= A selection of rice dishes from 34 Restaurant and Bar in New Orleans][end: article-img-container]The best spot in the house, according to sommelier Nicole Maddox, is at the “jamón bar,” where guests can peer into the kitchen. “It’s almost like a chef’s table experience, where you’re watching the whole kitchen and what they’re doing,” said Maddox. “[Sometimes] you get to see Emeril back there working the ‘expo,’ as well as chef E.J. and the others in the executive culinary team.”
At the bar, guests can enjoy Iberian cheeses and cured meats like chouriço, blood sausage and hand-sliced jamón Iberico. (A jamón master was flown in from Spain to teach both front and back of house how to properly slice and serve a full leg.) Diners can also order couvertes (snacks), including pan com tomate, as well as a heap of salt and vinegar chips layered with ribbons of jamòn.
A Portuguese Wine Wave
Throughout the wine list, Maddox and her team offer extensive notes for each bottle, introducing backstories, winemaking methods and tasting notes. According to her, this was done to assist guests unfamiliar with Portuguese wines. “It was also a practical choice—not everyone feels comfortable talking to a sommelier about wine,” Maddox explained.
“[The list] shares the history of the producers—even some of the more modern ones are playing around with the combination of traditional and modern methods,” Maddox continued. “They’ve just been doing their own thing … I love that Portuguese wines are really starting to become more prevalent.”
Some of Maddox’s favorite bottlings include those from lesser-known regions like Colares—a small coastal area filled with pre-phylloxera vines that “produce wines with…
Source : https://www.winespectator.com/articles/emeril-lagasse-opens-34-wine-bar-new-orleans-twin-tails
