Sunday, September 28, 2008

Busy-ness

So this week has been an absolute crush. I’ve been in three cities. I’ve been in a car, a train, a plane, and a boat. 7 demonstrations in 7 days. I am exhausted as I type this.

The week started in Tampa, where we were met by a serious group of fans. Most notably, a young culinary student, Kassandra, who was so eager to learn, that she came over to Orlando later in the week to help with our demo at Universal City Walk.



So, after spending some much appreciated family time in TB, ( it was Riley’s first plane trip), I headed over to Orlando for a few more classes. I stayed at Portofino, a hotel at Universal that was modeled after an italian port city. That was neat, until I facebooked, "in Italy", and felt bad as many of my friends were all excited for me. Not that Italy...
Ate at a few restaurants while in Florida.



Sideberns, Tampa. Really progressive menu and got a neat tour from Asbel.

restauarntBT, Tampa. Great Asian / French food. Riley's first fine dining experience, very cool

Emerils, Orlando. On the ol' corporate dollar, I ordered the biggest steak they had. Someone please buy new plates at Emerils. When china has so many scratches, that it looks grey, it’s time to reinvest...

Highlight of Orlando, having a small arsenal of stages to help. We are starting to roll deep!

Than, in a slight mix-up, I needed to drive back from Orlando to Tampa at night, and catch a 530 AM flight to 
Atlanta to shoot an episode of Movie and a Makeover.

It is set to air the day after Thanksgiving. The holiday themed affair was awesome. I really enjoyed playing within the theme and want you to check it out if you can on that Friday.

And scripted television... a very good experience for me. It’s a different game and it’s the balancing of improv that makes it great. This was an awesome run for me and I’m hoping Turner, a local giant, invites me to do a bit more work. I was feeling it.

And without break, I was at it again for two separate days of shows in Atlanta, the last at Piedmont Park, where I received a much warmer welcome than I anticipated.

I did have to skip a dinner at Restaurant Eugene where I was supposed to meet the Real Housewives of Atlanta.  I will be blogging the show so it would have been interesting to meet them off camera. 

Tomorrow, finishing the week, I am at the Atlanta Home show at Cobb Galleria, before getting on a plane to LA for some private functions.


4 comments:

Eric said...

I was lucky enough to catch your 11:00 demo on Saturday in Piedmont. Just to say, ya' did a stellar job, Sir. I'm pretty stoked about this whole double temperature Krispy Kreme milkshake idea (which is not to even mention the sheer foolishly awesome idea of sweet potato tots). Anyways, it was cool to meet you even though I'd never even seen the show. Good Job.

- Eric Baehr.

abryancole said...

This is not exactly a direct reference to the post, but I had a dream last night that I took a cooking class from you, in which we made a re-invented version of Chicken Cordon Bleu (I don't remember the details of the re-invention, but it was cool) and also, alongside the chicken was a scoop of foam that had the look of the most amazing silky meringue foam, before it is cooked, but tasted like the most amazing cheesy potatoes. My husband thought it was a pretty interesting idea, so I thought I would share.
I'm so looking forward to the new restaurant! Best of luck!

Richard Blais said...

I always enjoy when inspiration strikes when least expected! Thanks for sharing...

Anonymous said...

Chef, when do you expect Flip to open? We would like to schedule a trip there from Tampa.