Back to the Big DumpTruck

Here are the official links:

- Emeril's Website

- TV Food Network Site (the only place for info on tickets)

As my pregnancy drew to a close, there were only a few items on my social schedule. One was our annual charity auction at work, and the other was going to Emeril's book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Framingham Ma.

I have never been to a real booksigning. I normally don't know when they are going to occur. However, I did know about this one!

We arrived at about 6:30 and bought two books, one for my aunt and one for me. Keith would have the one for my aunt signed. I sat my 9 months pregnant self on the floor to wait because there weren't any chairs. Well, there were a few, but Emeril attracts an interesting breed of fan to these signings. Not only did none of these middle-aged women offer me a seat, when it was time for the books to be signed one of them actually stepped on my hand in her hurry to get to the table. I gave her the world's dirtiest look after my husband helped me up, but she didn't even apologize. But I digress...

A woman started setting up a hotplate and some ingredients. We later learned this was Felicia, his Food Producer (no pun intended, I don't think). She started browning some bacon in the pan to get things started. The smell was great - and it really got the crowd excited because we knew Emeril was somewhere in the building!

He arrived wearing black jeans and black clogs, and his chef's jacket. He actually seems subdued to me, maybe even a little shy. But he seemed happy to be there. He started off by talking to all of us about how the cookbooks came to be, and talked about himself. He mentioned how he graduated from Johnson and Wales and had trouble getting a job as an American, so with no money and not speaking the language, he went to France. When he came back to New York he instantly got a job simply because he had been to France.

He really loves kids. He talked about his involvement with Make-A-Wish and went out of his way to talk to the kids who were near the front of the crowd (we were about 20 feet from the table where he was talking). The longer he talked, the more he warmed up and started cracking jokes. Then he started to cook.

He made the spinach salad with potatoes, onions and bacon from the Christmas book. I wish I had been able to taste it, because it smelled unbelievable. He didn't really pass it around to anyone, and by the time he was done he went to sign books so I didn't really see what happened to it.

We had to wait about 30 minutes or so to get up to him in line. There were lots of cutters. He took time to say hello to everyone, and personalized the books if you wrote your name on the little piece of paper they handed out before he arrived. I had Keith go first so that when he was done he could take my picture. However, Felicia spotted the camera and asked if he wanted his picture taken with Emeril. As you can see by the shot below, he got to go behind the table and put his arm around him! JEALOUS! Keith wasn't able to get as good a shot of me.

I had printed out the whole web site and put it in a folder which I gave to him when it was my turn. He seemed fascinated and while he seemed to use the web a bit, he'd never been to this site. I got more than my 30 seconds at the table while they both asked a few questions. I was thrilled to finally be able to tell him all about this web site! I know it isn't much, but I started it just because I loved his show, and it was nice to be able to tell him what a great job he does.

Me, explaining this web site to Emeril while he signs my book (Felicia is looking at the printouts of the webpage. Emeril also looked at the printouts (and kept them) and seemed impressed. He didn't seem threatened, and didn't say, "Hey, stop pretending to be me!").