A Reverend, an Ambassador and a bottle of soy sauce...

So I’m back from Phoenix a few pounds lighter for sure and minus a few articles of clothing.

Kecap manis (a sweet, thick soy sauce) doesn’t do too well at 30,000 ft. As my parcel came out on the carousel, that beautiful aroma of the shiny condiment hit me and probably a few others as well. Back at the hotel, the cleaning person probably thought I murdered someone as I left more than half of my clothes drenched in a dark viscous liquid. Oddly enough, I usually leave an article of clothing behind in hotels, I’m not sure why, but I do. I left my pink crocs in Chicago for example.

Aside from the explosion, the trip went well. Betty Fraser was a trip, even though she kicked her fish back at the restaurant we went too! I’m looking forward to catching up with her again next week in LA.

The fans in Phoenix were awesome. As I was sweating my Parisian scoops off, the natives were perspiration free, and a lot of fun. Another super clean city, as I got a chance to jog both days around downtown, and see the baseball and basketball stadiums. I forgot my ipod, and so once again, I had to run w/o the influence of mid nineties hip-hop.

The next stop on the tour for me is LA next week and I’m looking forward to working again with Antonia Lofaso, my colleague from season 4.

So with the long flight back east, and a longer lay over at the airport ( something I don’t mind, as I get strange enjoyment from airports ), I really started thinking about how all of this traveling, presenting and demonstrating could really have an impact on the creative food movement. And that’s a new goal. I really want to turn as many people on to trying new things with their cooking, or better yet, their dining options. So, I hope I can become a good ambassador of my craft, a much misunderstood genre of food.

Which brings me to this….the day before I flew to Phoenix; I did a phone interview with a Phoenix journalist. (http://thedish.freedomblogging.com/2008/07/24/qa-richard-blais-talks-burgers-top-chef-and-31-course-menus/ ) and the guy, Jesse, really asked some of the best questions I’ve had thrown my way in a bit. I mean, I’m just tired of people asking me if Lisa was a bitch, or if Padma’s hot, like either of them needs my validation.

So then THE question comes, and it always comes…is Atlanta the city for me, or would I be better off in San Fran or NYC. So in answering I, and if you know me, make this long connection to the South being a conservative town and how it may take a bit for them to embrace creative cooking, because, hey, lets be honest, it took the South a long time to embrace civil rights…. And if you just winced, like my wife did, or like my friends at Amuse-Biatch did (http://amuse-biatch.blogspot.com/) then I get why. I guess I have a way of talking that does not drive a direct A to B line, my mind takes the scenic route and I go along for the ride. I certainly didn’t mean anything news worthy of it. However, ironically, on our night out in Phoenix we ran into Jesse Jackson… in Arizona… weird.

So the lesson of the day is to find out if I’m being quoted verbatim, or if the writer is going to write the piece and pepper in a few quotes. This one was verbatim, and inflection, tone and sarcasm just don’t come off well in print.

So it’s back to running a restaurant for a few days, and then, back to Jamaica doing more product development for the new launch of Red Stripe… speak soonest.