The spontaneous moment in which I met Emeril Lagasse

I came back to the office after an assignment Friday afternoon ready to start the weekend. I was so sick of covering the swine flu. I never liked it in the first place. I was more concerned about my big plans for the weekend than writing, yet another, mediocre swine flu story.

The plan was to hit the Suncoast Food and Winefestival Saturday with some friends and then head over to Epcot for the last day of their annual food and wine event on Sunday. In between would be plenty of time for relaxing and working out to burn off all of those calories.

Then a co-worker headed over to my cubicle and changed everything.

He handed me a copy of the St. Pete Times entertainment section.

"I don't know if you know about this," he said.

Staring up at me was a picture of the legendary Emeril Lagasse - my own personal culinary hero - in a field of fresh greens beside an announcement that he would be signing cookbooks about 40 minutes away on Sunday.

I was, seriously, speechless.

I later apologized to Ron for my lackluster and unenthusiastic reaction. I think I was just numb with some sort of disbelief. Every so often I stalk the Internet looking for appearances by my favorite food celebrities, and Emeril never seems to do many. Was it really possible that he was going to be just 40 minutes away at some random mall in Brandon?

My friend Cathy and I then found ourselves driving up Interstate 75 at 7:30 Saturday morning to secure our spot in line. The Books a Million would start giving out numbers when they opened at 9 a.m. and we wanted to make sure we'd get one. We got there about 40 minutes before the store opened and secured spots in the high sixties, meaning not only would we definitely get our books signed, Emeril would probably still be pretty fresh when we met him.

And then, we waited.

By the time Sunday morning rolled around I was surprised I wasn't more excited. When Bobby Flay came to Syracuse, I couldn't sleep the night before. And he's a fairly new obsession. In fact, I never used to like him.

Emeril has always been my favorite, and his food really ignited my passion for cooking.

I think I was just in disbelief. I thought it was too good to be true and braced myself for the possibility he would cancel at the last minute.

At one point Sunday morning it dawned on me that I didn't know what I would say to him. So many wonderful recipes I've tried. So many memorable dishes at his restaurant. So many stories from so many years of admiration of him. What could I say in a brief moment?

But given that Bobby Flay barely said two words to me and Paula Deen gave me a dirty look, I figured there wouldn't be much time for chit chat.

At about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Cathy and I were back on the road to the mall, where we found our prime spot in line for the signing.

Once it started it all went so fast. The line moved and we moved with it.

At some point Cathy told me something she was going to say to Emeril. I looked at her and said: "You know there probably won't be a lot of time to talk to him."

"I know," she responded. "I'm just going to tell him real quick while he's signing."

It made me think I should have something in mind to say, but how can I convey all of my love for Emeril's food without looking like a total idiot? I decided I would just tell him I tried to make his amazing banana cream pie, and that it did not come out as good as his.

So that's exactly what I did as I approached him wearing his chef's uniform at the table.

He kind of let out a gush of air and looked up and immediately started advising me on my baking.

"You've got to really whip it. Whip it real good. Just keep whipping and whipping until it stiffens."

(Any sexual innuendo or reference to that tacky song was totally lost on me at this point. I was so nervous. Practically shaking, and really could not believe Emeril was advising me on his banana cream pie recipe.)

"Oh, I'll have to try that," I said politely.

He looked down to sign the book then stopped and looked up again.

"That's a tough one. A really tough one. Good for you for trying. Keep trying and you'll get it."

And that was it. I walked away totally euphoric toward my friend Cathy and barely heard her asking me, puzzled realizing it was too late, if I wanted to smile for a picture. I was so wrapped up in this whole banana cream pie situation that I forgot to look up and smile for a photo.

How amazing though? Emeril was just like he is on tv. The voice, the mannerisms, everything. He was so incredibly nice (although I joked we should wait until the people at the end of the line went through and see how he was holding up by then).

As we walked out we swapped Emeril stories with this girl who was in line with us. She said she went up to the table and told Emeril that she can't cook.

He told her that couldn't be true, and - pointing to the cookbook - said it all starts here and advised her to go home and get started.