Author Archives: Robert

The only thing stronger than the appetite of a teenage boy is the appetite of several teenage boys. In my son’s last few years of high school, our house was the place where he and his friends met and hung out. It could have been because the layout in his bedroom was conducive to theContinue reading “The TV and the Meal Ticket”

Recipe inspiration comes from many places. Sometimes it’s a thought out of thin air. Many times inspiration comes while dining in another restaurant while traveling. Other times a recipe is developed because of a surplus of ingredients or a special price of a select item. Though recipe development these days is much different than itContinue reading “Squashing Recipe Development”

Two years ago, I spent several months eating my way through New Orleans to compile a four-part series of my top ten New Orleans breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and brunches. Those original lists can be found here ( Top 10 Breakfast | Top 10 Brunch | Top 10 Lunch | Top 10 Dinner). Over the past coupleContinue reading “New Orleans Favorites”

I believe the key to creating great communities starts with one thing. We have our careers and family lives, but the people who make the biggest impact in a society are the ones who seem to focus on one thing above and beyond their professional path or family life. I was talking to my sonContinue reading “One Thing”

Exactly 40 years ago this week I began my freshman year of college. My entire life was ahead of me and I felt as if I had the world by the tail. Today— exactly four decades after I left home— I have returned to the same campus. This time with my son, to begin hisContinue reading “A Letter to My Son His Freshman Year of College”

Food tastes better on vacation. I don’t know the psychology behind that premise, but it’s true. In the days before I opened my first restaurant, I pulled two stints, in two different years, as a server in restaurants in Destin, Florida. People pay more for meals when they’re on vacation, and they don’t bat anContinue reading “Vacation Foods”

Marina Mengelberg is a Dutch-born Italian tour guide who lives in the heart of Tuscany. My friend, business partner, and co-collaborator Wyatt Waters and I met her when we first started leading tours in Tuscany. She is a very close friend who tours us through four locations— the medieval towered city of San Gimignano, aContinue reading “The Grand Tour”

The first spiritual gifts test I took as a part of a church group came back and listed my primary spiritual gift as the gift of hospitality. A few years later I took another spiritual gifts test and the results were the same— hospitality. Then, 20 years ago, as a part of a parenting workshop,Continue reading “Hospitality”

There were a lot of crappy foods in my childhood meal rotations— cereals with way too much sugar, cheap meats, odd sandwich combinations, and frozen dinners— but I never ate macaroni and cheese until I was in my 40s. To this day, I have only eaten mac and cheese a few times. It’s not becauseContinue reading “Mac & Cheese”