his Portuguese cooking style with the spices and fla-
vors of creole and Cajun cuisine. Lagasse fell in love
with New Orleans and, in 1990, opened his first res-
taurant, Emeril’s, which was named Restaurant of
the Year byEsquiremagazine. He opened NOLA, a
second restaurant, in 1992, followed by openings in
Las Vegas in 1995 and Orlando in 1999.
Lagasse’s fame came through television. When
his restaurant successes caught the attention of exec-
utives at the newly established Food Network, he was
invited to New York and featured inHow to Boil Water
in 1993. Lagasse was encouraged to host his own
show, butEmeril & Friendswas not successful. His
next show,The Essence of Emeril, drew a larger televi-
sion audience, and in 1997 the hour-long, un-
scriptedEmeril Live became the most successful
cooking show on television. Filmed before a live stu-
dio audience, Lagasse’s show demonstrated a range
of cooking, from creole to “jazzed up” meat and po-
tatoes. His opening monologue, lively sense of hu-
mor, and down-to-earth approach had audiences re-
sponding with whistles, shouts, and applause. The
show also featured Cajun musicians and guest stars.
In addition to operating his restaurants and star-
ring on his television show, Lagasse has written best-
selling cookbooks, beginning withEmeril’s New New
Orleans Cooking(1993). Lagasse produces a number
of products bearing his name; particularly popular
are the Essence blends. He has won various awards,
both as a chef and as a television personality. In 1999,
he was named toPeoplemagazine’s “25 Most In-
triguing People of the Year.”
Impact With his signature word “Bam!” and ex-
pressions such as “Kick it up a notch” and “Pork
fat rules,” Lagasse not only became part of popular
culture but also helped create a fascination with
cooking for a wide audience. He recast the image of
a premier chef from an elitist trained in Europe to a
blue-collar, American-oriented food enthusiast, who
demonstrated that cooking haute cuisine “ain’t
rocket science, it’s just cooking.”
Further Reading
Hessler, Amanda. “Under the Toque.”The New York
Times, November 4, 1998, p. F1.
Vigue, Doreen. “Kicking It Up a Notch.”The Boston
Globe, April 26, 1998, p. 12.
Marcia B. Dinneen
See also Cable television; Food trends; Television.
Lang, K. D.
Identification Canadian pop and country singer
Born November 2, 1961; Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada
The singer-songwriter came out as a lesbian in the 1990’s,
even as she shifted her musical style.
Canadian singer K. D. (Kathryn Dawn) Lang, who
styles her name in all-lowercase letters as k.d. lang,
has developed a unique style based as much in pop
and jazz as in her original love, country music. Most
of her 1980’s albums bore out her country back-
ground, but with Nashville only offering moderate
respect to her talent, Lang began to focus on her
other interests in the 1990’s. Lang became vocal
about vegetarianism and animal rights. Then, in
1991, she marked her film debut as the star of
Salmonberries. Her 1992 albumIngénueshowed no
country influence, and her regular country backup
group, the Reclines, was not credited. The single
“Constant Craving” from that album won a Grammy
Award and critical acclaim.
That year also marked a dramatic change in
Lang’s public profile. In an article published in the
gay magazineThe Advocate, Lang came out of the
closet about her lesbian identity. She had always
been popular with lesbian audiences, who wel-
comed the news, and she maintained a straight audi-
ence as well. The following year, she appeared on the
cover ofVanity Fairdressed as a man. She introduced
her friend Melissa Etheridge to the audience at a
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) in-
augural event for U.S. president Bill Clinton, also in
1993, and Etheridge spontaneously outed herself.
Always held to the fringes of country music, Lang
was now completely removed from it. A genre associ-
ated with conservatism, country was not able to wel-
come such a radical into its most popular circles.
However, Lang’s style had always embraced more
than country alone, and her move only increased
her success in the 1990’s.
In 1993, she wrote and performed the sound
track forEven Cowgirls Get the Blues.In 1995, Lang re-
leasedAll You Can Eat, and followed in 1997 with
Drag. She made two guest appearances in that year
on the sitcomEllen, when Ellen DeGeneres’s charac-
ter came out of the closet. As Lang’s style shifted, her
core audience moved with her, even while she at-
tracted new fans. She took a three-year sabbatical be-498 Lang, K. D. The Nineties in America