The Story Behind Emeril Lagasse's Exploding Cake

Emeril Lagasse has achieved many milestones in his career as a chef. According to the Cooking Channel, he worked really hard as a teenager and was tackling full shifts at a local Portuguese bakery while juggling his studies. He later received formal training at Johnson & Wales University and launched his first eatery in 1990. Here's something impressive: He is also a skilled drummer, and as a student, he received a tempting offer with a full scholarship to study music. However, the aspiring chef was confident about his culinary dreams and decided to pursue those instead.

It paid off handsomely for Emeril Lagasse, who is the first celebrity chef to have crafted meals for NASA astronauts. However, even someone like Lagasse knows that making mistakes is a part of the learning process. According to Delish, he goofed up once at a potluck event when he had to prepare a rich pineapple cake. The best part about this story? Lagasse did not give up.

As per Delish, Emeril Lagasse was asked to come up with dessert for a potluck meal. He was armed with an ambitious plan: The chef would bake a pineapple upside-down cake for the party and surprise other guests with his baked treat. Unfortunately, he made one mistake that cost him dearly. The chef said that the event took place at a high altitude, something that completely slipped his mind. "I don't know if it was the wine, but I totally forgot about this thing called altitude," Lagasse recalled. "The cake actually blew up inside the oven — just the pineapple was lying in the pan." 

Luckily, Lagasse was able to recover from this mishap and devised a backup plan. There were bananas available, and he quickly bought some ice cream, choosing to prepare bananas foster instead. "It was a great recovery," the chef said. What a close shave.