Frolic: jazz, books, food

Jazz, Books, Food, and the Writing Life

Blogging from New Orleans, La

26 November 2007

The Food Network may soon be a little quieter. Fishbowl reports that Emeril Lagasse will tape the last episodes of Emeril Live in December. It’s an unsourced rumor, but it just might be true.

Back in September, I wrote this behind the scenes look at Emeril Live for OffBeat Magazine.

Update: It’s confirmed. Emeril Live will end, but Lagasse still plans to work with the network.

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20 November 2007

We had another election in New Orleans last Saturday. Every candidate that I voted for won. That’s never happened before. I’m not overjoyed about every choice that I made, but I loved the fact that 70% of the voters thought that William Jefferson’s daughter should be out of politics. That’s a resounding defeat for a corrupt family.

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16 November 2007

The Daily Show writers explain the strike:

I promise this blog will not become just a bunch of YouTube clips.

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15 November 2007

This one is for all you Hispanists:

The man at the mic? That’s the prime minister of Spain. The pudgy guy who won’t shut up? That Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. And the distinguished gentleman who tells Chávez, “¿Por qué no te calles?” (i.e. “Why don’t you shut up?”). That’s Juan Carlos, the king of Spain. (Thanks Sam)

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John McIntyre, a copy editor at the Baltimore Sun, gave some excellent advice to young journalists: Accuracy comes first, clarity comes next, get to the point, be honest and everybody needs an editor. All his advice is excellent, especially the last one:

H.L. Mencken wrote, “No man, I argued, could be expected to read his own copy; it was a psychological impossibility. Someone should be told off to go through it, and that someone should be responsible for undetected slips.” You are not a better writer than Henry Mencken. Get somebody you trust to look over your stuff and tell you honestly what doesn’t work.

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7 November 2007

A good lesson in just over a minute:

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6 November 2007

This month in OffBeat I interviewed Mischa Byruck, the new forager at Market Umbrella. What’s a forager?

Mischa Byruck melts butter in a pan as he slices eggplant and oyster mushrooms for lunch. The butter comes from Smith Creamery, the eggplant from Christine Monica and the mushrooms from Brent Williams. They’re all vendors at the Crescent City Farmers Market. Once the vegetables cook, he piles them on a slice of ciabatta bread from Voodough Bakery, another market vendor.
“I don’t shop anywhere else,” he says. “I get everything that I need there, except for spices and booze.” He opens a bottle of Miller Lite. “I don’t necessarily always drink local. Abita is a little heavy for me.”
Byruck is the new forager for Market Umbrella, which runs the Crescent City Farmers Market. His job is to seek out area farmers and fishermen and connect them with potential customers, which could be the Crescent City Farmers Market, other markets, restaurants or even schools. The day before, he visited Monica’s 15-acre farm. That morning, he stopped by the Edible Schoolyard program at Green Charter School, which teaches students how their food is grown and who grows it. “I’m a go-between,” Byruck says.

I also had some thoughts on the Next Iron Chef. New Orleans’ own John Besh is a competitor:

I worry, though, that Cleveland-based chef Michael Symon might have an advantage because one of the three judges is Cleveland-based food writer Michael Ruhlman. It’s not that Ruhlman and Symon share a hometown. It’s because, as Ruhlman wrote in a 2005 Cleveland Magazine article, “we’ve become good friends and I no longer write about him.” Maybe we shouldn’t expect the judges on the Next Iron Chef to be free from bias. The show is just entertainment, after all. There was no similar tryout for the other Iron Chefs, and the “chairman” is an actor. Still, it is presented as a competition.

And now we’re at the end of the game. Besh and Symon are the finalist. Who will win? Half the town seems to know, but I won’t spoil the ending for you.

Posted by Todd at 7:22 pm | No Comments

Last night I got polled. No surprise. We’ve got a run-off coming up. Except that they were polling for mayor. Nagin still has three years left, but maybe someone thinks he won’t make it that long.