Emeril LaGasse has always been one of my favorite television celebrity chefs. I have viewed many of his cooking shows on the FoodNetwork Channel, (in other words, I was tuned in every night watching Emeril). Not only is he popular on FoodNetwork, he has cookware, cookbooks and restaurants. So here is my story of how that I got to meet Emeril.
It was advertised that Emeril LaGasse would be at a local bookstore, for a book signing for his new cookbook, which at the time was, "There's A Chef In My Family". At the time, my two boys were ages five and three. The big day finally arrived and it was time to go to the bookstore to get my hands on a copy of "There's A Chef In My Family", and of course also to get to meet Emeril for a few minutes to get my new cookbook signed by him.
That was the first time that I had ever been to any kind of a book signing before, so I thought well, I am not going to be there long, was I ever wrong with thinking that. When I got to the bookstore with my boys, I had to go purchase the cookbook, then go around to the area of the store where that Emeril actually was, so that he could sign my cookbook.
So, having said that, I proceeded to the other side of the store to get Emeril to sign my cookbook. Another big suprise that I was not expecting. The line for the cookbook signing was lined around the outside part of the mall past tons of stores, up the stairs and then past more stores. It took a few hours to stand in that line to get the cookbook signed.
While my children and I were standing in the line to see Emeril, a lady from a local ice cream shop in town was handing out free samples of ice cream. So, okay, we enjoyed our ice cream while waiting. Two younger people were standing behind us through the journey. We conversed while standing in line. After the children finished their ice cream of course, that made them thirsty. I asked the lady behind me if she would save my place in line so that I could go find something to drink for the boys and I would be right back, she
said okay. I went and purchased some bottled water and went to get back into the line. I thanked the lady for holding my place for me. Then after that, it was Mom, I need to go to the bathroom. Really? So once again, I relied on the lady that was behind me in line. She was like, no problem, the bathroom is right down
the hallway there. I took the boys to the bathroom and came back and got back in the line once more. I made sure to thank the couple once again for holding my place in line.
Finally, the line moved around to where you could see the celebrity chef. There he was in his white chef uniform with hat. Red carpet was rolled out in front of where that he was sitting signing cookbooks. Security Guards on each of the entrance of the signing, and behind him. At this point, the wait was still maybe an hour.
One of the stores at the mall was of course a toy store. The lady behind me asked if she could take the boys in the toy store and she would watch them while the line was moving around, then she would bring them out and get back in line. The toy store had a big window display of Thomas The Train going. That was all that my boys were interested in doing, so I let the boys go into the store with the lady because I could see all three of them through the window as I was moving closer in the line. When I moved around it was time for the lady to bring the boys out to get back in line, which she did. Only one problem, my youngest son threw one more fit coming out of the toy store, he had his heart set on standing there in the store for a longer period of time to play with his favorite Thomas The Train toy and at the time, was Percy. He had everybody's attention that was standing closeby in the line. I picked him up and tried to comfort him, told him that we had to go do something else now.
That worked and it was my turn to step up to the table where Emeril LaGasse was sitting signing cookbooks. I put my son down so that I could hand Emeril my cookbook. He was very polite, he looked at my oldest son and asked him how he was doing. My son just looked on at him, and could not speak a word back to him. I spoke up and said he is shy and he is fine. By that time, my youngest son was balling again, saying in a crying voice, I want to play with Percy, I want to play with Percy! Emeril looked at me and said, what did he say? I looked back at Emeril and said, He said that he wants to play with Percy. Too funny, right? Emeril had no clue who Percy was or what it was that my son was trying to tell him. Emeril looked down at my cookbook and wrote BAM! on it in big letters, signed his name on the book and that was it. My cookbook signing experience was over.
I am glad that I had the chance to meet Emeril and to get my cookbook signed by him. I would not have missed that opportunity for anything in the world! One day I would enjoy very much so to dine at one of his restaurants. I also have an Emeril cooking pan that proudly sits atop of my stove everyday.
Thanks for reading my article. Please leave me a comment.
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