The Scent of Home
Growing up in south Louisiana skewed my sense of food. When I was a kid in elementary school, almost everyone I knew cooked or talked about cooking. I remember one of my 7th grade classmates at St. Joan of Arc reading his “How To” essay to the class and the topic was cooking jambalaya. During […]
Get Back on That Horse!
From October of 2013 “Goodnight John. Goodnight Tommy. Oh, and in the morning, before you get out of bed make sure you shake out your shoes real hard before you put them on, just in case a scorpion crawled in during the night. And if one does comes out, squash it with your shoe. I […]
My Michelin Inspection
This essay originally appeared in the Huffington Post and E-Gullet Greenville, SC is the North American Headquarters for Michelin. In addition to manufacturing tires, all of Michelin’s travel publications are edited and published here. In mid-July of 2005 I got a phone call from a good friend of mine at the Michelin Travel Guide. Some […]
Adios, mi Amigo
Owing a single independent restaurant is surely one of the planet’s toughest business models. If you’re good at it there’s a single digit profit percentage at the end of a 70-hour work week. If you’re lacking imagination you won’t bother trying to wow diners but instead will try to capture them with a little bit […]
When the Road was Dirt
I’m afraid you’re dying Yes. I know. I’m too old, too heavy to lie here like this. I wish there was something I could do. I don’t want to lose you. My time has come. There’s nothing to be done. I’ve had a good life and seen many wonderful things. Tell me. What kind of […]
The Road to Jericho
The leaves of Western North Carolina had just started to turn. My Ford hummed along Interstate 26 and its tires sang their steady note. Outside the leaves shimmered in every shade of green, yellow, and orange and in a few more days they would be at their peak. Half a mile further the mountainside bore […]
Elephants, Robots, and Engineers
If I asked you to name the techiest country on earth, the one that’s invented the best gadgets and created a variety of cool appliances, you’d probably say Japan, or maybe Germany. Rightly so. In the last 25 years or more, many of us have looked to Japan’s relentless creativity for phones, laptops, cameras, TVs, […]
Three Meals and One Babka in Boston
I love babka, a proper handmade babka, and believe it is one of the most lovely bites of food on planet earth. Imagine something as buttery and rich as croissant dough, rolled out until it’s as thin as a bedsheet, brushed with warm chocolate ganache (cream and chocolate melted together), rolled into a thick cylinder, […]
The Ghost of Court Street
We were expecting another guest and although the weather was springtime rowdy with wind, a few cracks of lightning, and hard rain, I distinctly heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Me being the gracious host that I am, I set down my knife and walked to the top of the stairs to welcome our late […]
My Farewell to the Woodlands Staff
For almost 30 years, Hiro Sone captivated enthusiastic diners at his Napa Valley restaurant, Terra. There was a time between the early 1990s and late 2010s when one could often find Chef Sone on the cover of Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, or any restaurant journal. I was a fan of his cooking, his […]