The Food Network Shows Emeril Lagasse Wants No Part Of

If you look at Food Network's television schedule, you'll see that it's overwhelmingly full of competition shows. The lineup is a far cry from how it was in the early 2000s. Many of us regularly tuned in to shows like "30 Minute Meals," "Food 911," "Good Eats," and the one that ruled them all: "Emeril Live." These were all programs in which the chef/host ultimately showed viewers how to cook. It was calm, often funny, educational TV that made you hungry. Today, Food Network is a heart-racing experience, with professional chefs and novices pitted against each other, cooking for some sort of cash prize. And while many old-school Food Network chefs are involved in these shows as participants or judges, Emeril Lagasse is not one of them.

Lagasse recently told People, "I enjoy the television aspect because I like to teach. I'm not interested in competition. I'm interested in getting your attention, taking the intimidation out of that and teaching you how to cook, about ingredients, how to shop, how to pair it with wine." This isn't to say that the successful restaurateur has never partaken in competition shows (he's been a guest judge on "Top Chef" and "Food Network Star") but we probably won't see him headlining his own cooking rivalry show anytime soon. Since leaving Food Network, Lagasse has stayed plenty busy and continued to build his impressive empire by opening new restaurants, writing cookbooks, and focusing on his foundation, the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, which supports educational culinary programs for children.

The first competition shows on Food Network were pretty exciting, in part because they offered new, fresh content to the lineup. "Iron Chef" (both the Japanese and American versions) was an incredible look at haute cuisine done in 60 minutes; "The Next Food Network Star" introduced the world to soon-to-be-superstar Guy Fieri; and of course, "Chopped" became a huge hit. Slowly, educational cooking shows like Emeril Lagasse's were cancelled and replaced by more competitive programs until that's all that was left.

This was partially due to the rise of social media, which is now a huge source of information. Need to know a shortcut way to truss a roast chicken? There's a thousand shorts for that. How to poach an egg? Look it up on YouTube. People suddenly didn't need a Food Network host to show them how to do these tasks over a 30 minute period anymore because they could get the answers and printable recipes in a matter of seconds. When it comes to food shows, viewers can look up a recipe before a show's opening credits finish rolling; they don't need to wait until the end anymore. But with competition shows, they must stay tuned in to see what happens, leading to more viewership, which of course, is what any given cable channel aims for. If it's informational cooking you miss (specifically, Lagasse's shows), The Roku Channel streams the chef's old and newer programs for free.