In 1992 while working at the Betsy Ross Hotel, now renamed the “Betsy” to make it less tied to the past and shooting for the future, I had found out that Maida Heatter had quietly been in and had dinner the night before. How I found this out I’ll get to shortly….

First we mourn. We all miss the legendary Miami delis of the past. We need to name them to honor them. Corky’s, Pumpernik’s, Wolfie’s and The Rascal House. I’m sure my New York City born and raised mother took me and my sisters into a few if not all of them when…

Some chefs start their careers in humble places and then work their way up the ladder to more and more fancy and complex places. And for some that is the goal. But some of them get up on that perch and say something that rhymes with “Tuck It”! And they seek to…

My introduction to the world of Anthony Bourdain began with the sound of hearing my mother laughing while reading a book in her favored chair. Not a minute passed before she was laughing again. I was getting ready for work and between trips to my coffee cup, I stopped and said, “Okay…

Growing up I didn’t have anything one might refer to as received scripture. Our church tried. And I tried with them. I did my Methodist best but it just didn’t stick with me. And though I had hero’s … in sports, there was Muhammad Ali … who we first knew as Cassius…

With Summer here I’ve been noticing some of the various Food Festivals coming up.Sadly we just missed the Eau Claire, Michigan July 4th weekend Intercontinental Cherry Pit Spitting Championship. This popped up … sorry … in 1974 for the first time. Who knew something like that could be so … enduring? Their…

I didn’t grow up watching Julia Child on television the way many people of my generation did.  My television hours were not inclined toward any aspects of cooking, though we did cook in our home.  My mother was a both a restaurant worker and also (for a time) a Girl Scout leader….

Crazy long days of work and not assured of getting a meal later I went for a bigger sandwich for lunch… much different than the meals I typically split with my wife, Janet. Two men sat down right next to us at the neighborhood place we were ensconced in. A nicely dressed…

Is it just me or has every major food magazine in the country had a cheeseburger on the cover as we gear up for summer? One of the magazines asked the question, “Did you have a happy meal?” and goes on to report how McDonald’s had experienced a state of “Mc Emergencies”….

Who does not love won tons? These ethereal purse like morsels of food first appeared in the Pearl River Delta port of Guangzhou during the Tang Dynasty around 618-907 A.D. Then they followed the Cantonese diaspora, drifting east to Hong Kong. If you are not yet familiar, but do know more about…