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Daily Inspiration Quote by Emeril Lagasse

"We began building this incredible new foundation in this restaurant, and that's what began giving me the left-hand side of tradition and the right-hand side, my new palate"

About this Quote

A chef describing his own evolution like an architectural project tells you everything about Emeril Lagasse's brand: big, optimistic, and built to last. He’s not talking about a single dish or a single breakthrough. He’s talking about a place - a restaurant - as an engine that rebuilds a person. The “incredible new foundation” is career language, yes, but it’s also identity language. Restaurants are where repetition turns into instinct, where taste stops being a preference and becomes a practiced point of view.

The sly power in “left-hand side of tradition and the right-hand side, my new palate” is how physical it feels. Left and right suggests balance, muscle memory, the body at work, hands moving independently yet in sync. Tradition becomes something you can literally hold, not just revere. The “new palate” isn’t framed as rebellion against the old; it’s an addition, a second instrument. That matters in American food culture, where innovation often gets sold as disrespect. Emeril’s phrasing argues the opposite: the best kind of reinvention comes from standing inside the system long enough to see its seams.

There’s also a celebrity subtext: origin story as credibility. By placing transformation in the grind of a restaurant rather than on TV, he’s reminding you that the showy confidence has a blue-collar base. It’s the kind of line that turns “Bam!” from catchphrase into proof of craft.

Quote Details

TopicCooking
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Lagasse, Emeril. (2026, January 16). We began building this incredible new foundation in this restaurant, and that's what began giving me the left-hand side of tradition and the right-hand side, my new palate. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-began-building-this-incredible-new-foundation-88375/

Chicago Style
Lagasse, Emeril. "We began building this incredible new foundation in this restaurant, and that's what began giving me the left-hand side of tradition and the right-hand side, my new palate." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-began-building-this-incredible-new-foundation-88375/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We began building this incredible new foundation in this restaurant, and that's what began giving me the left-hand side of tradition and the right-hand side, my new palate." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-began-building-this-incredible-new-foundation-88375/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Emeril Lagasse (born October 15, 1959) is a Celebrity from USA.

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