Emeril Lagasse appeared on The Martha Stewart Show yesterday for the first time since the two became business partners. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia acquired Lagasse's TV shows, cookbooks, and kitchen products, but not his restaurants for $45 million, plus $5 million in stock.

Martha Stewart: Tell everybody how this deal came about?

Emeril Lagasse: You have a very interesting chairman by the name of Charles Koppelman, and I've known Charles in another life. How this came about is, Charles brought his grandchildren, who were huge fans of 'Emeril Live', to the show ...

Martha: They were so excited!

Emeril: They appeared and I hadn't seen Charles in a long time, so I said, 'What are you up to?' And he said, 'I'm working with Martha.' I said, 'You know Charles, I've really been wondering how to expand in a quality way my brand, and there's only one person that I look up to, and that's Martha.'

Martha: You look up to me? I wore my highest heels so that he'd have to look up to me.

Emeril: That's not fair! I have flip-flops on.

At post time shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are up $0.10 or 1.41% at $7.17.

(image via Anders Krusberg/The Martha Stewart Show)