Emeril Live!

FOOD FIGHT + UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I recently was looking for info on what it's like to be an audience member at Emeril Live, and the internet let me down. Since I was able to attend a taping on Friday, I thought I'd do future internet surfers a favor and write a few words about it. That is, if they can find their way to Daily411 via google.

Taped in Chelsea Market, the day starts out with a lot of waiting. We got there 30 minutes before check-in time, and still were pretty far back in line. This in part determines how close you sit, so that was unfortunate.

It seems like the people who sit basically on stage so that they can eat and talk to Emeril, are picked somewhat at random, mostly from the attendees who have "VIP passes." The people who get to sit in the front two rows of tables seemed to be mostly VIPs as well. My wife and I got lucky (it must be because she is photogenic), and at the last minute we got upgraded from the back row of the studio up to the front row of tables, taking the place of a couple who got moved up on stage.

Out of about 120 people in the studio, 24 got wine (including us), and about 18 got to try some of the food (not including us). Though they did throw some chips to the poor saps in the back rows.

Once it was show time, it was pretty entertaining. I always think it's lame when people are clapping because Emeril adds salt, but you do get a bit caught up in the show of it. He doesn't do a ton of cooking on the show really, but he is definitely entertaining, and very charismatic in person. The coolest behind the scenes thing was seeing the 5-10 sous-chefs and other crew members scramble around like mad during commercial breaks, cutting up food and getting things ready so he can move on when the lights come back up.

So it made for a long day (nearly 5 hours from getting in line until leaving,) but still pretty cool, and there's a good chance that my wife and I will be seen on the Food Network on May 10th. And we got a free glass of wine, so there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.