Emeril Lagasse is expanding his culinary empire this month with his first hamburger joint.

Burgers and More by Emeril will bring the world-famous chef's signature flair to the basic burger. It's slated to open Nov. 22 at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pa.

"I really want to be the real thing," Emeril told Slashfood at the restaurant's unveiling at New York City's famed Carnegie Deli. "This is not going to be the dollar menu here."

To much of the country, charismatic Food Network star and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse has become, well, just another household name. But in Bethlehem, Pa., tucked in the foothills of the state's Pocono Mountains, Emeril has become a culinary heartthrob whose embrace has sent the locals into a frenzy.

For the residents of this overhauled steel town already gaga over the coming of its first casino, the addition of Emeril's Chophouse side-by-side with the slots is a coup. After all, the Yankee (he hails from Fall River, Mass.) bypassed New York City (where he has a second home) and Boston (an hour from his birthplace) for "Christmas City" to house his first northeast eatery.

The Bam! man was on hand Tuesday for a media luncheon, and is currently in Bethlehem overseeing a test run of his 230-seat restaurant for its sold-out Friday opening. Located inside an old steel mill building, the restaurant is fittingly outfitted with cast-iron steel flourishes and a menu combining Emeril's bayou style with the no nonsense meat and potato sensibilities of the region: "We are very sensitive to the market no matter where we are," he told us.

Emily Farris is author of 'Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven'

Last week on "Good Morning America," Emeril Lagasse accused show host Charlie Gibson (who was not present at the time) of stealing one of his recipes. This might not have been a big deal if the dish -- a chicken enchilada casserole -- had not become the most popular recipe on GMA's Web site. Today Gibson struck back in the blogosphere, defending his culinary prowess and questioning why the renowned Emeril would want to take credit for a recipe based on canned chili, canned tomato sauce and canned enchilada sauce topped with Doritos.

Leaving aside the well-known fact that Doritos are delicious -- especially the Cool Ranch variety, but let's not get distracted here -- as a casserole cookbook author, I'm inclined to take Gibson's side on this one.

Gibson claims he got the recipe from a friend before he ever knew Emeril. And I believe him. I grew up thinking my mom's green-bean casserole was hers. It was creamy on the inside, crunchy on the outside and all-round delicious. Of course my mother had created it! Except she hadn't. When I began to make it myself, I learned it was the Durkee onion can recipe.

Earlier today, Joanne gave you the results of the Food Network Awards, and now chef/writer/adventurer Anthony Bourdain gives his opinion of the ceremony.

Bourdain hasn't been shy in giving his opinion on what he thinks has become of the Food Network (too much focus on "star" chefs, bad food being cooked, an emphasis on too many things that have nothing to do with cooking, etc), and he has some choice words for the awards show:

Over the next few days we'll be taking a look at a number of dishes that fall into the 'Cajun', 'Creole', and 'Southern' food categories. Though there are distinct differences between each style of cooking, for ease of posting I'm going to lump them into the single category of "Mardi Gras food".

I use a basic Creole spice in most of my dishes which I'll be referencing back to over the next couple of days. This is very similar to Emeril's "essence", though each recipe varies slightly. You can adjust the amounts to suit your own personal taste, though the mixture below will produce a nice blend of seasonings and spice that will accent and flavor your food without adding too much heat. If three-alarm is what you are looking for, by all means add more cayenne!

The recipe can be found after the jump.

I know, I know, you're hating me already, right? How can I defend Sandra Lee when she seems to have more people that dislike her than Rachael Ray? Read on.

I've never understood why people dislike Lee. Is it the fact that she's beautiful and looks like one of Charlie's Angels cooking up a meal in the kitchen? Is it the fact that she doesn't do everything from scratch, and instead dares to use packaged foods from the supermarket? Is it something else that I'm not aware of?

I was watching Food Network on Saturday night (yes, I have a very thrilling social life) and I saw an ad for their All-Star Thanksgiving special that starts airing on November 18. Is that the special from last year or the year before and not a new special? I ask because Sara Moulton is featured on the show, and I'm not sure if this is a new special or a special from the last couple of years.

I used to love Cooking Live every night and think it was a bad move to cancel that show. Moulton went on to another show, Sara's Secrets.

Nicole reported last year that Moulton was leaving the network, so are these Sara Secrets episodes repeats? I can't tell from the schedule at the site. When I saw the ad for the Thanksgiving special, it made me cringe a bit, because I know that she's basically not doing much for the network anymore, unless the episodes of her show that are on every morning are new and not repeats? To be honest, I didn't even know the show was still on anymore, and I usually don't watch Food Network that early in the AM, so I'm not sure if they're new or repeats.

There was a time in my life when I used to love the Food Network. In fact, I liked it so much, that when I walked in the door after work, I turned on the TV, which was already programmed to the Food Network from the night before. I would leave it on all evening until I went to sleep. I wasn't always watching very carefully what was happening on the screen, and sometimes, I even had the sound on mute, but it was comforting to know that someone inside the little flickering box in my living room was cooking something delicious. Back then, I even liked watching Emeril Lagasse, though I have to admit that I was watching his old show, The Essence of Emeril, in which a young Emeril was somewhat awkwardly, but very earnestly, cooking something. Hell, even in the early days of Emeril Live, I thought "Bam!" was kind of cute.

No, the rotund New Orleans-inflected celebrity chef will not be rocketing beyond the earth's atmosphere, but his food will.

Next week astronauts on the International Space Station will dine on a menu that Lagasse began crafting more than 18 months ago. The chef will chat with the astronauts next Thursday as they chow down on Mardi Gras Jambalaya, kicked up mashed potatoes with bacon, green beans with garlic, rice pudding, and mixed fruit. UPI's press release notes without a hint of irony that Lagasse is the first star chef to develop recipes served in outer space. It seems that's not entirely true. Alain Ducasse, one of haute cuisine's most successful chefs, has been working with the European Space Agency to give astronauts a taste of fine dining.

Perhaps we can look forward to freeze-dried meals from chefs coming to science museums sometime in the future. God knows they have to be better than Astronaut Ice Cream.

When it comes to TV cooks, people seem to either love or hate Rachael Ray, love or hate Emeril Lagasse, and love or hate Sandra Lee. But I don't know anyone who would even think of hating Dave Lieberman.

Lieberman is the young cook who had his own cable show (Campus Cuisine) while in college at Yale. He was then featured in a New York Times article by Amanda Hesser, and that led to his being signed to the Food Network, where he hosts Eat This. I picked up his book Young and Hungry: More Than 100 Recipes For Cooking Fresh And Affordable Food For Everyone  (yes, I'm slowly building up my cookbook collection). It's a hip, readable, and smartly put together book. He covers all the basis, including chapters on romantic dinners ("Dinner For Two"), breakfasts ("Lazy Mornings"), tail-gate parties ("Living Room Tailgate Parties"), even cooktails ("Happy Hour"). The book lives up to its title, and is a really nice gift if you know someone who needs an all-around guide to meals that the average person might want to make (unlike a lot of cookbooks, I can picture myself making almost everything in here).  

(And if I can say this here: speaking of Food Network, I really miss Sara Moulton's Cooking Live show. I don't know why I had to shove that in here, but I just had to say it. Go buy Lieberman's book though)    

Just in time for the Golden Globes, the Food Network aired a special on their work behind the scenes of Queen Latifah's movie, Last Holiday. The special, creatively entitled Food Network Goes to Hollywood, was a fun behind-the-scenes expose of how food is styled for the silver screen.

In Last Holiday (which, Cinematical tells us, receives raves from all the critics), Queen Latifah plays a housewares saleswoman with a heart of gold and a love for Emeril, whose dishes she cooks up for the kid next door. But the plot's not so important here: we care more about how many chickens they had to be purchased so the Queen could make Chicken Tchoupitoulas along with Emeril (on TV in her kitchen). They never actually said, but it was clearly dozens. We care that the actors usually don't get to eat the food in restaurants scenes, but in this movie? They did, and ate cassoulet and roasted quail with brioche and chorizo stuffing and spiced lamb shanks with blood orange relish. Oh my.

The funniest part of the whole show, though, was one of the chef consultants explaining that, because Queen Latifah's character ate Lean Cuisines for dinner, she was making a red wine sauce to go over the frozen entree: "so it will taste better for Queen Latifah." That's so sweet.

If you watched America's Next Food Network Star last year, as I did, you'll know that one of the points they want to make to the audience is that the food tastes good. Really good. To drive this point home, it's almost always mandatory for the chefs to taste their food, though the audience on Emeril's show is acceptable, too. Rachael Ray saves her tasting for the end of the episode, as the camera fades out. Paula Deen is great at tasting her cooking and seems to relish ever bite, often loading her spoon with so much buttery goodness that she laughs over the fact she can't speak! Giada de Laurentiis does a bit of both, but TVgasm managed to catch a moment where she wasn't at her best. Or rather, her cranberry sorbet was not at its best. She bravely went back for a second try. Check out the screenshots for the blow by blow, or rather, the bite by bite.

Forbes Top 100 Celebrities list includes 3 celebrity chefs this year, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck and Charlie Palmer, in spots 85, 86 and 100, respectively.

Emeril Lagasse rose in the ranks from spot 90 to 85 this year. The top rated chef on the Food Network is on more than one channel now that he has signed a deal with Crest toothpaste to appear, using one of his signature phrases, "Bam!", in their ads. Emeril made over $9 million dollars this year, but this could increase during 2006, as his line of signature produce is scheduled to hit the shelves.

Wolfgang Puck was ranked number 85 last year, but his pay of over $12 million dollars eases the pain of being bumped out of position by Emeril. Puck is expanding his line of gourmet take-away offerings and "express" restaurants at airports all over the country, which should do well as airlines cut back on inflight meals.

Charlie Palmer does not have a TV show, but he does have 11 restaurants on both coasts and over $4.7 million dollars in the last year for his efforts. Working with only one major investor, this driven but low-key culinary player's roster of restaurants includes the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse, Aureole, Astra, Astra West, Metrazur and Kitchen 82, with a chain of high-end grocery stores in the works. Jean-George Vongerichten held the 100th spot last year.