Featured Column
The Table Is the Real Destination
SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC—Flying home from Scotland, I feel two things at once—tired and thankful. Travel always does that to…
Read more
King Cake
Cakes Fit For A King
It’s king cake season. Those four words don’t carry a lot of weight across 90% of this country. Though in…
Read more
Neck Deep In King Cake Development
It looks like 2023 will go down as the year of the king cake— at least in my book. I…
Read more
RSJ's New Orleans Favorites
RSJ’s New Orleans Restaurant Recommendations 2024
NEW ORLEANS— In a poll of national food critics I believe New Orleans would be listed among the top three…
Read more
RSJ’s Top 10 New Orleans Breakfasts
The following is the first in a summer-column series that will cover dining in New Orleans. Over the next four…
Read more
An Engagement to Remember
This past weekend was a memorable one for our family. Our 26-year old daughter got engaged to her longtime boyfriend.…
Read more
Recent Columns
The Ninth Wave
ISLE OF MULL, SCOTLAND—There are meals, and then there are journeys disguised as meals. This one began with a boat…
Read more
Holding On
Before every party at our house—whether it’s a fundraiser, an engagement, or just another excuse to gather people—my wife finds…
Read more
Vacations Through Time
Vacations weren’t part of my childhood the way they were for most kids I knew. While my friends packed up…
Read more
Who Was Across from Me
I’ve eaten thousands of meals in restaurants. The ones that have stuck weren’t about the food. What I remember is…
Read more
Lessons Between Courses
CHICAGO— My wife’s off on a girls’ trip, and my son happened to have two days off work. That was…
Read more
What Pancakes Know
Some things in life are constant. For some people it’s a favorite hymn or a favorite breed in a family…
Read more
The Sandwich Principle
Sometimes I catch flak from my daughter. My wife gives me a hard time, too. They say I overshare on…
Read more
A Roast Beef Poboy and a Curtain Call
We landed in New Orleans on Sunday, which isn’t when most people arrive in New Orleans unless they’ve made a…
Read more
Crusts Off
My paternal grandmother was one of the sweetest, most loving people God ever put on this Earth. She didn’t fuss.…
Read more
The Best Job I’ll Ever Have
Father’s Day has come and gone, at least according to the calendar. But I’m still carrying it with me. There…
Read more
A Long Thank-You Note
There’s a lot of talk these days about self-made people. I’m not one of them. Whatever I’ve done, whatever I’ve…
Read more
This Wasn’t Supposed to Be About Milkshakes
Ice cream didn’t play a big role in my childhood. Never cared much for cream or shakes. Candy was more…
Read more
The Door at the Bottom
On May 25, 1983, I was 21 years old—lost and heading nowhere fast. That night, I was fspeeding down 4th…
Read more
RSJ’s Advice to Upcoming Graduates 2025
A few years ago, when both of my kids left for college, I wrote each of them a letter. Nothing…
Read more
Eight Weeks, Fifty Memories, One Grateful Heart
By the end of this year, more than 1,400 people will have traveled with me on RSJ Yonderlust Tours. It’s…
Read more
Onward Toward a Creative Life and Not an Unlived Life
There’s a quiet fear I carry that never really goes away. It doesn’t keep me up at night, but it…
Read more
A Spring of Celebrations
YPRES, BELGIUM—This spring has been a long celebration—one after another, in a beautiful blur. It all started with Mardi Gras,…
Read more
The Gift of Work, the Blessing of People
(A Life I Didn’t Plan, But Am Grateful to Live) PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— Two full days off. That’s a rarity over…
Read more
Friendship
PETROGNANO, Italy — Something unexpected happened over the course of the last 13 years. A quiet village in the Tuscan…
Read more
Rolling Fork is Truly Rising
PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— Since 2017, over 1,350 people have traveled with me on more than 55 trips to seven European countries…
Read more
No Sign, No Menu, Just Home
No one signs up for a European tour expecting to have lunch in a stranger’s home in a village so…
Read more
The Romance of a Pig Farm
SEVILLE— No one expects to use the word romantic when talking about a pig farm. But standing in the soft…
Read more
A Father’s Reflection on a Wedding Weekend
There are only a few moments in life when time slows down enough to let you take it all in.For…
Read more
The Weight of a Wedding
Life tends to deliver milestones in clusters, never spreading them out at a leisurely pace, but stacking them up all…
Read more