Against their will, Emeril (and his staff are forced to attend a Food Network ""Team Building Retreat"" in the Adirondacks, where they have to climb walls, swing on ropes and jump off a tall tower. Much to the envy of Emeril and Jerry, the women -- Cass, Melva, B.D. and Trish -- run into Bo Derek who is there to speak at a seminar for ""Women Who Are Too Beautiful."" Discovering that Bo is an animal lover, Jerry borrows Emeril's joke bear suit as a novel way to approach her, with disastrous results. (NBC)

Despite misgivings about ""going Hollywood,"" Emeril allows Jerry to talk him into participating in a segment of a hit primetime magazine show. Even though the gang insists they won't sell out for the camera, glamour-hounds Jerry, Cass, and Melva all find ways to pump up their appearances—and their roles in Emeril's success—for their interviews, and then have to scramble to put things right before Emeril sees the finished product.

Culinary Network executive Trish O'Connell gives Emeril exciting news: his show's high ratings have prompted the network to order 20 additional episodes. The catch? They want him to present a hipper image, complete with a new set and designer-label chef's jacket. Emeril's agent and friend Jerry McKenney and his staff— producer Cassandra ""Cass"" Gilman, stage manager Melva LeBlanc, and food stylist B.D. Benson—are all thrilled. However, Emeril quickly finds himself torn between the additional demands of his success and the fact that his wife Nora and three children James , Halo, and Charlie already consider him an absentee husband and father.

When Emeril needs top quality beef for the upcoming meat lovers' show and the normal supplier comes up empty, Cass enlists some family help. Unfortunately, after a trip to a dark New Jersey pier for a beef drop with Melva and B.D., she realizes that her cousin, the entrepreneur, is involved with a different type of ""family."" Things get worse when crime boss/Tony Soprano wannabe Vic Leopolis tells Cass that in return for the favor, he wants Emeril, his favorite chef, to ""kick it up a notch"" and host Sunday dinner for the mob. Even guest star Vincent Pastore, visiting Emeril's cooking show to shoot a segment, is unable to provide Emeril with a solution to his Italian problem.