Gonsoulin Ranch and Willis “Mr. Okra” Jacob will appear on “Emeril Cooks,” a news show by world-famous chef Emeril Lagasse this fall.

The episodes will run on The Roku Channel.

As a national TV personality, Emeril Lagasse has hosted more than 2,000 shows on the Food Network, and is the food correspondent for ABC’s “Good Morning America.” In September 2016, Amazon launched an original series featuring Lagasse called Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse. In January 2017, Lagasse entered his fifth season of “Emeril’s Florida” on the Cooking Channel.

Lagasse is the best-selling author of 19 cookbooks and has received prestigious awards for establishing the Emeril Lagasse Foundation. He dedicated the Emeril Lagasse Foundation Culinary Arts Studio, a four-year culinary arts program for high school students with master-apprentice curriculum at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. Each fall, the foundation hosts two fundraisers: Boudin, Bourbon and Beer, and its primary fundraiser, Carnivale du Vin, which has consistently ranked among the “Top Ten U.S. Charity Wine Auctions” in Wine Spectator magazine. To date, the Foundation has distributed $18 million in grants for children’s charities in New Orleans, Las Vegas and on the Gulf Coast.

Lagasse’s restaurant company, The Emeril Group, is located in New Orleans and houses restaurant operations, a culinary test kitchen for cookbook and recipe development, and a boutique store for his signature products.

Lagasse was chosen as “Chef of the Year” by GQ magazine, named one of People magazine’s “25 Most Intriguing People of the Year,” chosen as “Executive of the Year” by Restaurants & Institutions magazine, received the “Distinguished Service Award” from Wine Spectator for his significant and long-lasting contributions to the wine industry, inducted into the MenuMasters Hall of Fame by Nation’s Restaurant News, named “Restaurateur of the Year” by New Orleans City Business and received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from Food Network’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

The local operations he will feature on his show are very different.

Gonsoulin Ranch, owned and operated by Dr. Shannon Gonsoulin, is a unilateral operation with multiple facilities and a dedicated storefront.

Mr. Okra’s operation spans 15 acres behind a furniture store where people simply drive up and buy as they process.

They have a few things in common though; dedicated workers, warm hearts, a product limited only by its popularity and they were both invited onto the second season of Emeril Lagasse’s “Emeril Cooks,” where he invites Louisiana natives to his beautiful New Orleans studio to try dishes based on local cuisine using fresh local ingredients.

The question is why? Out of potentially hundreds of Louisiana farmers, ranchers and everything in between, how did Dr. Gonsoulin and Mr. Okra stand out?

Now, friendly souls, fresh meat, and fresh produce aren’t exclusive to New Iberia. You’ll find at least a few just about anywhere you go in the state. But Dr. Gonsoulin and Mr. Okra both have experience that elevates them above the rest.

Dr. Gonsoulin is a veterinary expert in food-animal, or what we’d call livestock, medicine with 30 years of experience. This practice intersected with his other passion, producing beef. The Gonsoulin family has experience in ranching as far back as the 1700s, but it was in 2006 that Gonsoulin started producing exclusively grass-fed beef.

This crossroad of experience uniquely positions him to explore and analyze the importance of food-animal medicine and health to the greater food industry. Part of raising and selling grass-fed beef is not using antibiotics in their feed to prevent bacteria and disease, so the ranch must ensure excellent herd health.

Willis, on the other hand, has nearly 30 years of agricultural experience. More important though, is his drive and dedication to the Okra at his age. Willis is 83 years old, but wakes up at 5 a.m. for every harvest, and isn’t done until every okra picked is cleaned and bagged. Together with his crew, Willis harvests on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. Okra is incredibly fruitful, so harvests can reach upwards of 1000 pounds, according to Charleen Markel, a consistent helper with Willis.

Producers on “Emeril Cooks” initially contacted Tammy Shannon, Willis’s daughter, and key helper, after reading an article in The Daily Iberian by Ellen Fucich. The show was looking for a small, Louisiana okra farmer, and was considering many different options, but after stumbling across the article, Shannon said the producer and his crew were desperate to meet Willis.

“They said after they read the article, this 80 something year old man getting up at 5 to pick Okra, we have to meet him. After reading the article, even I thought, I gotta meet Willis and Shannon”

Filming for Gonsoulin Ranch concluded in May, and filming for Mr. Okra finishes with one final shoot this month. Producers segmented filming for both businesses differently, based on the topics at hand. They filmed Gonsoulin’s episode in two parts: one on the farm, and one in the kitchen. While they shot Willis’s episode in three parts: one for picking, one for processing, and one for cooking.

Both Gonsoulin and Willis reflected on their filming experience positively. Both farmers operate on an amount of land that is truly difficult to absorb from the ground, so the show’s use of drone footage was a recurring cause of excitement for both.

Another highlight was, of course, Emeril’s cooking. Lagasse utilized beef from Gonsoulin Ranch and Okra from Willis’s field on the show, but Gonsoulin said it was a totally unique experience.

“You and I might be able to cook a steak, but chef’s like that, chef’s like him are real artists,” Gonsoulin said.

Neither episodes have a definitive release date, but Gonsoulin’s episode should air sometime this fall on television. You can catch both episodes of “Emeril Cooks” on The Roku Channel. You can find the Emeril Lagasse Foundation online at Emeril.org