Chef Emeril Lagasse was born in 1959.

Following in the traditions of television chefs like the Galloping Gourmet and Julia Child, chef Emeril Lagasse brings his own, unique flair to his cooking show. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, Lagasse began with an interest in music, but eventually forwent that desire in favor of a culinary education. After receiving a doctorate from Johnson and Wales University, Lagasse worked at a number of prestigious restaurants and eventually opened his first restaurant in New Orleans. Lagasse now has a number of restaurants around the nation, he has written several books and his cooking show is watched by millions of people every day. Especially known for his passion for food and cooking, and for his enthusiastic “Bam!” each time he adds spices to a dish, Emeril has successfully re-popularized the television cooking-show genre.

Xpeditions
Spice World (K–12) helps students learn about the spices of the world as they create a map showing the origins of the spices and herbs that help flavor their favorite dish.

Spices of the World (K–2) introduces young students to the concept that spices come from all over the world. Students are exposed to spices and their smells as they learn about the different places from which the spices come.

In Spices in Your Favorite Foods (3–5), students learn a little bit about the importance of spices in history and focus on the significance of spices in the foods they eat. Students research some of the spices in their favorite foods and map the origins of these spices. They then conclude by planning meals that use these spices and writing fact sheets that describe the spices to the people eating the meal.

The lesson Spice Geography (6–8) encourages students to think about where the ingredients in their food come from and how they are produced. Students investigate the origins of a variety of spices from around the world and map these locations. They then research and create presentations describing the climate, terrain and agricultural practices in the places they have mapped.

Science NetLinks
In Global Breakfast (3–5), students look for evidence of global interdependence by investigating the origins of the foods they eat. Students speculate about why certain foods are produced in different regions of the world and what might happen if the production and/or distribution of these goods stopped.

Students investigate the issue of food spoilage and the different methods that are traditionally used to prolong the freshness of food in Food Preservation (3–5).

EconEdLink
Hey, Mom! What's for Breakfast? (3–5) helps students learn about consumers and producers, goods and services and economic wants as they learn about breakfast foods popular in different countries.

Using the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act as a case study, students explore the reasons buyers and sellers asked the federal government to intervene with respect to food safety and quality in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (6–12). In a second activity, students examine how government has improved consumer access to food and nutrition information. Students then use this information to make a choice between two food products.

Illuminations
The multi-day unit plan, Food Pyramid Power (Pre-K–2) helps students explore logical and numerical relationships. The unit begins with Sorting Foods (Pre-K–2), a lesson that focuses on classification—the foundation for algebraic thinking—and on a review of one-to-one correspondence. Then students explore patterns and the relationships between numbers, and model addition sentences with missing addends.

Food is the theme that runs throughout the Illuminations data analysis and probability unit Food Court (3–5). Using menus and focusing on different foods and combinations in each lesson, students conduct surveys and represent data in a number of ways.

ReadWriteThink
In Cooking Up Descriptive Language: Designing Restaurant Menus (6–8), students explore the genre of menus by analyzing existing menus from local restaurants, reviewing adjectives and descriptive writing based on the language included in the menu examples.