Category Archives: Uncategorized

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don’t know who “they” are, but I agree. It’s also my favorite meal of the day. Breakfast offers many opportunities. During the school year, the morning meal is a come-and-go, in-and-out proposition in my home. I have a high school senior and anContinue reading “Breakfast at the Underwood’s”

NASHVILLE— My roots are deep in Nashville. I never lived here, I haven’t spent more than a few consecutive nights in a row here over the last 53 years, but it’s in my blood. My mother’s “people” all come from Nashville. As a child my grandfather, who grew up just outside of town on theContinue reading “NASHVILLE”

I have become bored with lackluster food. I don’t know if it’s an age thing or that my taste buds have dulled over the years— I really don’t care what the reason is— but bland, lifeless, boring food just doesn’t cut it anymore. This thought occurred to me as I was having dinner with myContinue reading “Ode to Country Ham”

The house was quiet. No one was complaining about having to do chores or negotiating a waiver from cleaning up his or her room. There was no homework to be done. The pets were fed. The kids were fed. The television was turned off. Miles Davis and Bill Evans were riffing back and forth inContinue reading “Shrimp Season”

Our office receives strange telephone calls and odd requests on a weekly basis. The calls usually involve my schedule. I am often asked to be an after-dinner speaker or a conference/convention keynote speaker. I love doing that. The most frequent inquiry we receive is about cooking demos or dual demos. The dual demos are myContinue reading “50th Anniversary Dinner— An Evening To Remember”

Movies often reflect reality. Though many times a substantial suspension of disbelief is required. Law enforcement and organized crime are the subject of many of today’s modern films. The military, various clandestine intelligence departments, Wall Street, and banking are also the center of a lot of cinematic attention. The restaurant business gets the short endContinue reading “The Hundred-Foot Journey”

  On an unusually warm morning in Paris this past July I woke up early with one mission in mind: To eat at the best French bakery I could find within 10 blocks of my hotel. I had scouted the Saint-Germaine neighborhood the afternoon before and found a few boulangeries but none that looked likeContinue reading “Hometown Jewel”

This is the final installment of a three-part column series covering the recent Battlefields and Baguettes tour PARIS— I write this in a Paris hotel room, at dawn, peering out to an empty street and looking back over the previous nine days, wondering if the local patisserie will open before our group boards a busContinue reading “The Final Days”

This is the second of a three-part column series covering the recent Battlefields and Baguettes tour in London, Belgium, Normandy, and Paris. YPRES, BELGIUM— This inaugural Battlefields and Baguettes tour was coordinated through the University of Southern Mississippi’s International Programs Department and all logistics were handled through that office. I have become a HUGE fanContinue reading “A Memorable Meal”