Category Archives: Weekly Column

PETROGNANO, Italy — Something unexpected happened over the course of the last 13 years. A quiet village in the Tuscan hills—Barberino-Tavarnelle—became a part of my story. Since 2011, spread across weeks and months at a time, more than two and a half years of my life have unfolded here. That was never the intention. ButContinue reading “Friendship”

PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— Since 2017, over 1,350 people have traveled with me on more than 55 trips to seven European countries and 40 European cities. What started as a single, one-off trip hosting a few people interested in the people and places I had discovered in Tuscany has turned into a second business that occupies almostContinue reading “Rolling Fork is Truly Rising”

PETROGNANO, TUSCANY—I wear a cap most days with a single word stitched across the front. “Onward.” A guest of mine here in Tuscany asked me what that meant. Was it a company name or a clothing brand? I told him it was just a word that’s meant something to me for a long time. MoreContinue reading “Onward”

No one signs up for a European tour expecting to have lunch in a stranger’s home in a village so small, it doesn’t show up on most maps. But that’s exactly where my guests found themselves—deep in the Andalusian hills, breaking bread in the homes of Spanish women who didn’t speak our language but knewContinue reading “No Sign, No Menu, Just Home”

SEVILLE— No one expects to use the word romantic when talking about a pig farm. But standing in the soft morning light, in the rolling hills of southern Spain, watching Iberian pigs roam free under a canopy of ancient cork and oak, that’s the only word that kept coming to mind. Romantic. When my RSJContinue reading “The Romance of a Pig Farm”

There are only a few moments in life when time slows down enough to let you take it all in.For me, this past weekend was one of those moments. My daughter, Holleman, got married. If you’ve been following along these past few weeks, you’ve read some of my reflections leading up to this day. AndContinue reading “A Father’s Reflection on a Wedding Weekend”

Life tends to deliver milestones in clusters, never spreading them out at a leisurely pace, but stacking them up all at once. This week is no exception. On Saturday, my daughter is getting married—a once-in-a-lifetime event. Then, two days later, I board a plane to spend the next eight weeks working overseas. It’s not idealContinue reading “The Weight of a Wedding”

These days, emotions are running high. One minute, I’m in my truck thinking about our restaurants or the travel business, and the next, a song comes on, and I’m blinking back tears. Not over business, not over projects—over something much bigger, and way more important. My daughter is getting married in 18 days. I’ve cateredContinue reading “The Wedding”

In the 1990s, I was at a statewide board meeting for the Mississippi Restaurant Association, and during a discussion about tourism, I mentioned the Hattiesburg Zoo in my hometown. That got some laughs. “Hattiesburg has a zoo?” they scoffed. Some of them chuckled like I’d just suggested we start promoting Hattiesburg as the next greatContinue reading “Ribeyes, Foxes, with a Side of Zebras”