2010 meant another Derby party at Casa Chok. This time we did it up right and made everyone dress as if they were actually going to the Derby. I did this to give myself the feeling that I was at the Derby because for sure, I was missing not being there amongst the 140,000.

Now, I don’t miss the lines, the drinks spilled on you while you are trying to get to your seat or go to the bathroom, the long long lines at the betting window while you are trying to get that last superfecta in behind the old lady from New Albany making a show bet on every horse in the race – one at a time.

I don’t miss the long taxi line after the races or the hard chair seats in the boxes. I certainly don’t miss the drinks they pass off as Mint Juleps that are nothing more than a teaspoon of bourbon and a packet of sugar with a wilted mint leaf.

No, I didn’t miss all that. I miss the people watching. The smell of the horses in the paddock and the sound they make coming down the stretch for the first time after the gate opens. That’s what I miss.

So, we had a Derby party in 2010 and I made the Mint Juleps from an old family recipe I got off a guy from northern Mississippi. In true Emeril style I kicked it up a notch and made them in my Margarita Ville machine, which shaves the ice. So, it was like an adult bourbon mint snowball and the women loved them.