Robert St John and Marshall Ramsey combine talents to crank out one of the most hilarious publications to hit the shelves since Mad became a magazine. St. John’s witty, often irreverent, food columns come to life through Ramsey’s over-the-top illustrations. From the first page, its obvious both these guys are nuts.
Each page allows the reader to delve deeper into the psyche of the two collaborators. Are they only a few fries short of a happy meal or just reliving a prepubescent need for potty humor. Only their wives and CPAs know for sure.
Likewise, every page peals back the most confidential information of the food industry. St. John’s secret battle against Hormel Foods, also know as the “Save the Spurkey Campaign,” is thrust into the public’s eye. Never before seen correspondence between St. John and Hormel corporate officials is reproduced in its entirety. Then there’s a St. John investigative efforts to reveal the closely held secrets of elementary school cafeterias. St John’s behind the scenes experiment reveals that lunch ladies really do recycle food from the plates of students to be served another day.
Nobody’s Poet is a laugh a minute. The second read is even funnier. It can’t be put down.
Nobody’s Poet Facts
- Written by Robert St.John, executive chef and owner of the Purple Parrot Company, Inc., which operates the Purple Parrot Café, Crescent City Grill and Mahogany Bar in Hattiesburg and Meridian, Mississippi.
- Illustrated by cartoonist Marshall Ramsey, whose illustrations have appeared in over 400 publications, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and USA Today.
- Divided up into 13 chapters by using a quadratic formulation, a very scientific approach.
- Includes over 100 of the best food columns ever written by St.John, as well as over 100 illustrations by Ramsey.
Nobody’s Poet Buzz
“Early on, my sister and I determined ourselves to be phenomenally shallow individuals and that literally everything in the universe has one of two possible effects on us: It either makes us Sleepy or Hungry. Robert St.John’s new book-indeed, every word he has ever written-makes me Hungry. It also makes me LAUGH-which, in turn, makes me Hungry. I am Completely Happy with this book-and that makes me Hungry. Perfect World? He comes over and cooks for me!”
“Robert St.John and Marshall Ramsey in a book together? YIPPEE! Eating and Laughing — whenever possible, simultaneously but never with my mouth full — my two favorite pastimes. It’s one-stop-shopping with this book!”
Jill Conner Browne, author of The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Love is Married, Gay or Dead and Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love
When Robert St.John ties on his apron and gets in front of a stove, he’s Picasso; he’s Brett Favre on a Sunday afternoon; he’s Emeril or your mama in the kitchen. Nobody’s better. It is simply not fair that he also knows how to write. And funny-heavily spiced with wit and intelligence-is the hardest recipe in the book for a writer. If you don’t know a whisk from a brisket, you’ll still love this book. Cooks and writers, well, they might be a little bit jealous.”
Sonny Brewer, editor of Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe, author of The Poet of Tolstoy Park
“Like most great cooks, Robert St.John is a brilliant observer of human nature and of the culture at large. His takes on too-dark restaurants, killer blowfish, and the perils of hot tea are laugh-out-loud funny. Everybody should read this book and then they should head South and start eating.”
Julia Reed, senior writer, Vogue and author of Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena
“By way of his latest effort, Robert St.John proves that he’s Nobody’s Poet. He’s also Nobody’s Fool. Wait, check that.OK, OK, I hear you. So can we all agree that he’s Nobody’s Dullard? Or, owing to his corn-fed persona, his deep-fried proclivities, how about we dub him Nobody’s Foie Gras Fetishist? You say that won’t do either? Aw hell, I give up.”
John T. Edge, author of Fried Chicken: An American Story
