dougemerson
Chef Doug Emerson has made a name for himself and his dishes cooking for big time music acts
When chef Doug Emerson was a teenager, he read Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and found his calling. At 17, he ran away to join the county fair and began traveling around the Midwest and Southern states, working as a ride operator. Looking back, Emerson realized that initial adventure whet his appetite for travel and awakened a sense of wanderlust that would never leave him.
“I was never really happy where I was,” Emerson said. “I never had the feeling I belonged here. When I read [“On the Road”], I thought it was pretty cool. I thought I could probably hitch a ride and wash dishes or pick potatoes somewhere and meet people. It just sounded exciting to me, so I did it.”
Lucky for Emerson, he has found a lifelong profession to continually satisfy his desire of being a nomad with a purpose.
Emerson is based in Lexington, where he resides in the Chevy Chase area with his wife, Ginger, and two stepchildren. But for multiple weeks throughout the year, he flies to various corners of the country, where he serves as the road chef for prominent musicians, actors and dignitaries.
During the spring and summer months, for example, Emerson has been working tirelessly for the bands, crews and entourages of Jimmy Buffet, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw.
During the Chesney-McGraw tour – a 19-show, three-month-long job – and his eight-member crew will cook three meals a day for a group of 300. Since it’s such a huge tour, they will have access to a meat smoker, a kitchen trailer with an extra-large oven and an inside prep trailer.
Emerson, who buys locally grown produce whenever possible while on the road, provides a variety of meats for each meal, as well as fully stocked salad and sandwich bars.
“It’s a business where you have to go in and create something that isn’t there or accept a structure that’s already there and be creative with it,” Emerson said.
Often times artists will make special meal requests at the end each show. Chesney is one of the easier people to accommodate, Emerson said, as his meal of choice is a grilled sandwich with black forest ham, gruyere cheese and Dijon mustard.
On the flip side, one of the most unusual culinary requests Emerson ever granted was from another country music artist, Keith Urban, who always wanted a post-show meal of brown rice, blueberries and organic almonds that had to be prepared no longer than 10 minutes before it was served.
Suffice to say, Emerson has honed a variety of cooking styles over the years, from Southern style fare for the country boys, to macrobiotic, vegetarian and vegan dishes for the health conscious or those with specific dietary needs.
“One of the best dishes I did was for ZZ Top,” Emerson said with fondness. “I made what I called a ‘Steak and Snake Boogie.’ It was a spin on a surf and turf. I found a dealer that had some rattlesnake meat, which I deep fried and put on top of grilled steak tenderloin, then drizzled an orange chipotle hollandaise sauce over it. He loved it.”
Emerson started out in food in the early 1980s working at a catering company on Romany Road, after which he attended the French Culinary School in New York.
Emerson’s traveling adventures began following graduation. He served as a culinary consultant for the Hyatt in Cancun, Mexico, a chef at a fishing lodge in Alaska, a personal cook for a matriarchal, European-style family in Cape Cod, Mass., and the special events chef for the governor of Kentucky.
Other people for whom Emerson has cooked include beatnik poets William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, President Jimmy Carter, and sports legend Muhammad Ali.
“I cook for a lot of people that I’m so in awe of how immensely talented they are,” Emerson said. “I just try and make sure I take care of them the best I can.”
Emerson first learned about macrobiotic foods while working for the family in Cape Cod. He took a class on the concept when his employer wanted to change over to that style of eating. Emerson didn’t realize then that honing such skills would help shape his future, as he would later be hired to cook that genre of food for Meryl Streep on the set of “The River Wild.”
While some chefs may see it as a chore to have to amend specialty menu items to accommodate such specific dietary requests, Emerson views it as a license to express his creativity.
“(Macrobiotic cooking) is very specialized, but the whole world of healthy eating is more gourmet than anyone imagined,” he said.
Emerson moved back to Lexington several years ago to care for his mother, who was suffering from a serious illness. “I realized that even though my career wasn’t here, my family was,” he said.
While back in Lexington, Emerson met his wife, married and settled into a more grounded family life – that is, until he got a call from someone looking for a traveling chef and once again hit the road.
While Emerson is always happy to return home to his family after a bout of traveling, he also relishes the ambiance and excitement of being on the road and meeting new people.
Constantly switching up the scenery and cooking styles has kept him invigorated and on his toes.
“You can fall in love with the entire idea of being on the road,” Emerson said. “It’s not like you’re the one that’s saying you have to go; life is telling you that have to go. Anytime you connect with people – especially through food – life is good, life is real.”