Emeril’s son nominated

E.J. Lagasse, the chef leading Emeril’s in New Orleans, is a finalist for the 2026 James Beard Award for Emerging Chef. (jamesbeard.org) The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists on March 31, 2026. Lagasse was one of five chefs named in the national Emerging Chef category, alongside nominees from Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Texas. (jamesbeard.org) Winners are scheduled to be announced on June 15, 2026, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The foundation says its restaurant and chef awards have been presented for nearly four decades. (jamesbeard.org) Lagasse returned to New Orleans in 2022 to run day-to-day operations at Emeril’s as chef and co-owner. The flagship restaurant reopened in 2023 after a renovation with a menu built around Louisiana ingredients and updated versions of Emeril Lagasse’s older dishes. (emeril.org) His national profile rose again in November 2025, when the Michelin Guide said he became the youngest chef ever to lead a two-star Michelin restaurant. Michelin also gave him its 2025 American South Young Chef Award. (guide.michelin.com) The nomination lands a few months after the Lagasse family closed 34 Restaurant & Bar in New Orleans on January 31, 2026. That restaurant had been a Portuguese-inspired project tied to the family’s heritage and to SouthCoast Massachusetts food traditions. (heraldnews.com) Emeril Lagasse grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, and the Emeril Group says his mother, Hilda, was Portuguese. In 2024, he said a new Portuguese restaurant would draw on flavors from Fall River and nearby New Bedford. (theemerilgroup.com, heraldnews.com) That gives the nomination a second audience beyond New Orleans: the Portuguese-American SouthCoast communities that have followed the family’s restaurant projects. The next marker is June 15, when the James Beard Foundation names its 2026 winners in Chicago. (jamesbeard.org, heraldnews.com)