In June of 2006, I entered a recipe contest on the Emeril Live show at Food Network's Website.

    I was looking for a recipe that I had just seen being prepared and noticed the link to the contest entry while poking around on the site. It was a tailgating contest, recipes that you might make to go tailgating.

    I entered my Italian Mint Burger Slices that I have made for some time and pretty much forgot about it. It didn't take 10 minutes and I was off to the next thing.

    About mid November I was shocked when the phone rang and it was Alan Madison, a producer from the Food Network. He told me I was in the final 10, and that they needed to know about how to get down here, where they might stay, a little bit about me and my cooking, just generally feeling me out you might say.

   I was shocked, I told a few friends and the word spread like wildfire. Two days later Alan called back and said that I had indeed won, one of four winners from over 1,500 entries. Honestly I could barely believe it, and Alan went about making plans to come down from New York with a film crew to film me making the burger.

   This filming was to be aired on the Emeril show in a short two minute bit showing me cooking the burger, before Emeril himself cooked it, along with the other three recipe winners. The local paper got wind of the event and asked if they could send a reporter to write a story. I gladly said yes and they sent Sara Coleman of the Bolivar Commercial out to the site.

    The filming took place in late November at the Benoit Outing Club in Bolivar County. A crowd of my friends came to the filming, bringing all manner of great food to eat. We had an outdoor eat out, as close to tailgating as you can get.

    The filming was fun, I was a little nervous at first but fell into place quickly. Alan and his crew of 4 were real professionals and walked me right through the process. They were really nice people, and afterwards we all ate hearty and pigged out.

This is me and the film crew working out the kinks.

Photo Courtesy of Sara Coleman the Bolivar Commercial

 The Emeril show flew me and the other contest winners to New York to film the show on Dec. 17th. They put us up in the Millford Plaza right on Times Square. For a country boy like me, who had never been to New York, this was truly an eye popping experience!

    Times Square and the surrounding area was exhilarating and exciting. It was literally alive, people everywhere, from every nation, doing everything you can imagine. I must have said WOW about a million times. It was really FUN!!! (Even though it was 21 degrees, it didn't seem to slow the place down a bit)

    The next morning I got up early and it was 18 degrees, but I chose to walk the 26 blocks to Chelsea Market to film the show just so I could see a little bit of New York on the street. I was truly amazed at what I saw. It was nothing like what I thought New York was like. People were friendly, and the shops were small and family owned. I especially gravitated to the butcher shops and small groceries that catered to the locals who all lived in the area. They had the GOOD STUFF, food you never see around here in Mississippi, all as fresh as can be. There were real Italian stores and real Asian stores, real French food stores, bakeries that smelled so wonderful I could not believe it, the place is covered up with high quality food.

 When I arrived at Chelsea Market, there was already a long line waiting to go into the Emeril Studio, so I grazed the fresh seafood market there that is absolutely superb, and the BounItalia, an Italian grocery store with real authentic foods from Italy. I had to run out of BounItalia, I spent over $300 and was just getting warmed up!

Emeril's Studio is on the 6th floor of Chelsea Market, when we finally got up there and walked on the stage, it was almost surreal to me. I have watched Emeril's show hundreds of times, I almost felt right at home, but this time, it was real. There was Doc Gibs and the boys, there is Emeril's stove, WOW it was really exciting. They seated all the winners around Emeril's work area, and the rest of the audience began filling up the seats, as the crew hooked me up with a microphone and did some tests.

              Alan Madison, the director who had come to Mississippi to film me, came out and was just as nice and friendly as he could be. He asked if I was nervous, I said "No man, I feel like I've been here a hundred times, it's really comfortable!" I talked to Doc Gibs a little bit since I was seated right next to him, and just took it all in as the huge crew prepared for the show.
( I will add some pics when I get my disk of the show)

   When things were in order, a young tart and wildly energetic gal came out to rile up the audience and get them pumped up for Emeril's entrance. Music got loud, folks got rowdy, and when they thought it was heated up enough, HERE COMES DA JUDGE!!!!!!!

    He came out and did his usual tour through the audience and his entrance spill, and then tossed it over to the band while he got dressed standing right behind me. He was talking about food, but like he had done this so many times, it was like falling off a log to him.

    Emeril went straight into it, they showed a quick two minute film of one of the other winners, and Emeril went over and greeted them, and went right to work. Emeril is just like you see him, there is nothing fake about the man. He is as real as he seems on TV.

    When the break came, an army of people boiled out of the door that is right behind Emeril on the set, (which you can't see on TV) and began doing all kinds of stuff. They have it down to a science, everybody knows what to do, they scurry around taking care of things. Emeril took the time to talk to each one of the winners, he came over to me last, and said "Hoddy toddy eh?" We laughed, he said he has friends in this area and his wife is from Gulfport, we talked a little bit about good gulf seafood and he was off to the races again.

    We had done about half the show and been through several breaks during which Emeril had come over and talked, and played on his little drum set that they have set up for him next to the band. Suddenly in the middle of one segment, a poor soul in the audience had an epileptic seizure, which clearly shocked Emeril and upset him. Filming stopped and a crowd of people from the crew rushed up in the seats to help the man. Everyone came out to go over the set, and Emeril stood there fumbling with his towel and staring up in the seats at the man. He was clearly concerned about the man, it was almost touching. They decided to take the man out of the studio, helpers worked with him, and Emeril talked to his crew, and finally came back over to his stove to look at things. I took that moment to call him over and give him a little stuffed Mascot from my school, a stuffed fighting Okra, and told him that the school wanted him to have it. I think it kind of took his mind off things and minute, we talked some more, and then we were ready to go again. So the young dynamo energetic girl came back out, got the crowd all riled up again, and off we went.

    My recipe was the last one that Emeril cooked, they showed the little filming we did down here, and Emeril took off making my burger. He was talking to me, but at that point it was almost like it wasn't real, I don't really remember what I even said to him. (I will have to watch and see!!!)

    The crew brought around samples of each dish to us and I enjoyed all of them, even my own recipe. Soon Emeril was signing off, after they stopped filming, Emeril thanked the audience for coming and gave a warm and genuine show of appreciation, and as quickly as it started, it was over. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience for someone who loves to cook as much as I do, and who admires Emeril and his accomplishments. I will never forget it.

    I spent the rest of the day wandering around Manhattan and taking in all that I could. I took a short nap around dark and got up and spent the entire night exploring the Times Square area. Before I knew it, I was back home again, still tingling from the experience.

    Since this whole thing started, I have been front page news in 4 newspapers, have done a local TV show about interesting things that local people have done, been filmed at our lakehouse, gone to New York for free, and met one of my favorite celebrities on his show, Emeril Lagasse.

And all of this, over 10 minutes of time, and one simple little hamburger recipe.

It just doesn't get any better than that!

See the recipe at the foodnetwork website
(and please rate me as 5 star!!!)

Photo courtesy of Sara Coleman the Bolivar Commercial