Cookbook Interview My newest cookbook, New South Grilling (Hyperion, $29.95), had its national release last week. Since I am the newspaper’s food writer, the duty falls to me cover the book’s release. Therefore I will interview myself. Columnist Robert: Good morning, Robert. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with me. [...]

Tough Chefs Chefs are tough. They have to be. Cooking in a professional kitchen is one of the hardest jobs out there. The pressure is high, the heat is intense, and the skill set needed at the upper level of the restaurant business is earned more than learned. A lot of people get into the [...]

Leftovers I know a man who never has to eat leftovers. I grew up across the street from him. When he woke up in the morning, breakfast was waiting for his arrival to the table. In the middle of the day, he left work and drove home to enjoy a freshly prepared lunch. When he [...]

Too Short, or Too Demented? “You’re too short for your weight,” said my doctor. “Pardon me,” I said. “I’m looking at this chart, and it says right here that you’re way too short for your weight. You’re supposed to be between six-feet five inches and six-feet seven inches tall,” he said. “But I’m five-ten.” “I [...]

You’ve Come A Long Way, Mississippi In 1987, when I opened The Purple Parrot Café in my hometown of Hattiesburg, the wine situation in Mississippi was bleak. At the time the Alcohol Beverage Control Division of the Mississippi State Tax Commission, the state agency that purchases, stocks, and distributes liquor and wine, had only been [...]

Restaurant Bathrooms and Parenting I was having lunch with my family in a very nice restaurant on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain the other day. The dining room was packed and everyone was dressed in their Easter finest. Halfway through the appetizer course, my six-year old son came walking out of the bathroom fastening [...]

Spring Break 2008 Part II I just finished the second half of a spring break sandwich that started in the South Louisiana swamps of Cajun country and ended in the French Quarter of New Orleans. My wife, son, daughter, and I had fun during the first leg of the vacation, but the trip to New [...]

Spring Break 2008 The conversation went something like this: “Billy and his parents are going snow skiing during spring break,” said my son. “Susie’s family is going to the beach,” said my daughter. “Where are we going, again?” “To Breaux Bridge, Louisiana,” I replied. So began Spring Break 2008, the year my family chose to [...]

48-Hour Food Journal I recently travelled to New York for a business meeting. I ate way too much. The following is my 48-hour food journal Wednesday 8:20 p.m.: Checked into the Soniat House hotel in the French Quarter the evening before an early-morning flight to New York. I now have a new favorite hotel in [...]

Fasting I have a friend who is fasting during Lent. I’m not talking about a not-eating-meat-on-Friday fast, or an I’m-gonna-give-up-red-wine-for-40-days-but-still-drink-white-wine fast. No, he’s doing an honest-to-goodness, Mahatma Gandhi-type fast— nothing but water. Fasting is a method of religious observance, penitence, and purification which is practiced in several religious faiths. I am of the protestant persuasion, [...]