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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”

YRES, BELGIUM– Five days into the Battlefields and Baguettes tour and everything is running smoothly. I wish I had the University of Southern Mississippi International Studies logistical team handling details every time I travel. Our group of 18 has reached the midway point of a trip that is taking us to World War I andContinue reading “Five Days In”

The packing has commenced and the two-day scramble to get all “affairs in order” before an international trip has reached full-tilt boogie. I am about to travel back to the European continent. This time I won’t have a wife, two kids, and an artist in tow. On this go ‘round my wife will accompany me,Continue reading “Battlefields & Baguettes”

“Don’t stand in front of the kitchen door, sir.” I stepped to the side as the server hurried by with a full tray of fried seafood baskets. I moved just in time for another server to rush out of the kitchen with an overloaded tray of boiled shrimp, fried fish, burgers and crab claws. IContinue reading “Gulf Shores Surprise”