Dining: E.J. Lagasse nod
E.J. Lagasse, son of Emeril Lagasse and with Portuguese‑American roots tied to Fall River, is a finalist for the 2026 James Beard Award in the Best Emerging Chef category. (heraldnews.com). The local Herald News noted the nomination and Lagasse’s Fall River connections in its April 13 coverage. (heraldnews.com).
E.J. Lagasse is a finalist for the 2026 James Beard Award for Emerging Chef, a national category that spotlights rising talent in American restaurants. (jamesbeard.org) The James Beard Foundation published the finalists on March 31, 2026, and listed Lagasse for his work at Emeril’s in New Orleans. Winners are scheduled to be announced on June 15, 2026, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (jamesbeard.org) Lagasse runs day-to-day kitchen operations at Emeril’s as chef and co-owner, according to the restaurant group’s biography. The same bio says he returned to New Orleans in 2022 after training at Café Boulud, Le Bernardin, Core by Clare Smyth, and Frantzén. (emeril.org) The nomination lands a few months after the Lagasse family closed 34 Restaurant & Bar, their Portuguese restaurant in New Orleans, on January 31, 2026. The Herald News reported that 34 had drawn on family recipes and SouthCoast Portuguese food traditions tied to Fall River and New Bedford. (heraldnews.com) That Fall River connection runs through the family as well as the food. Emeril Lagasse grew up in Fall River, and the Emeril Group says his early cooking was shaped by time in the kitchen with his mother, Hilda, and by work in a Portuguese bakery as a teenager. (theemerilgroup.com) In 2024, Emeril Lagasse told SouthCoast outlets that a trip through Fall River and New Bedford helped shape the menu for 34. Herald News coverage from that visit said he toured Portuguese markets and restaurants while researching the project. (witness.usatoday.com) E.J. Lagasse had already picked up industry attention before this year’s Beard nod. Emeril’s says he won La Liste’s New Talent of the Year in 2023, and that Emeril’s added AAA Five Diamond status and Relais and Châteaux membership in 2024. (emeril.org) The Beard finalist slot puts Lagasse in a five-chef field that includes nominees from Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Texas. For the Lagasse family, it also means the national awards conversation has shifted from a closed Portuguese side project back to the flagship dining room in New Orleans. (jamesbeard.org)
