E.J. Lagasse named Beard finalist
Portuguese‑American chef E.J. Lagasse — identified as Emeril Lagasse’s son with roots in Fall River — was named a 2026 James Beard Award finalist for Best Emerging Chef. (heraldnews.com) The local report frames the nomination as a national recognition for a second‑generation chef building a profile beyond his family name. (heraldnews.com)
E.J. Lagasse is a 2026 James Beard Award finalist for Best Emerging Chef, putting the 22-year-old chef of Emeril’s in New Orleans on one of U.S. dining’s biggest stages. (jamesbeard.org) The James Beard Foundation announced its restaurant and chef nominees on March 31, and listed Lagasse alongside four other finalists in the Emerging Chef category. Winners are scheduled to be announced June 15 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (jamesbeard.org) Lagasse first appeared on the Beard list as a semifinalist on January 21 before advancing to finalist status two months later. The foundation has presented its Restaurant and Chef Awards since 1990. (jamesbeard.org) He runs the kitchen at Emeril’s, the family flagship at 800 Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans, a restaurant his father opened in 1990. The Michelin Guide says the dining room has celebrated Creole cuisine for more than three decades. (guide.michelin.com) The finalist nod lands after a fast run of national recognition for the restaurant. In November 2025, Michelin said Emeril’s earned two stars and that Lagasse became the youngest chef ever to lead a two-star Michelin kitchen. (guide.michelin.com) Michelin also gave him its 2025 American South Young Chef Award and said he had worked at Le Bernardin, CORE by Clare Smyth, Frantzén and Café Boulud before returning to New Orleans about three years earlier. Michelin said he graduated from Johnson & Wales, the same school as Emeril Lagasse. (guide.michelin.com) Inspectors describe his food as a new version of Creole fine dining, with dishes such as barbecue shrimp tarts, gumbo and cornbread that feel “familiar and new at once.” Michelin says his cooking now leads the only two-star kitchen in the greater region. (guide.michelin.com; guide.michelin.com) The Beard finalist spot does not decide the award, but it puts Lagasse in a five-chef national field and extends a stretch in which Emeril’s has been recast as a modern tasting-menu restaurant under a second generation of the family. (jamesbeard.org; theworlds50best.com) The next marker is June 15 in Chicago. By then, Lagasse will know whether a season that already brought Michelin stars and a Beard finalist berth ends with a James Beard medal. (jamesbeard.org)
