Saturday, March 13. Home And Garden Show. Jesuit Celebration. The Saturday radio show was a remote from the Home and Garden Show at the Superdome. Although the event is primarily about home improvements (I bought a ladder for $285 there ten years ago), many of those improvements are in the kitchen. The food component of the program included a stage where an impressive slate of chefs would come in and demonstrate dishes. Chef Paul Prudhomme was here yesterday. As I was cranking up the radio show, Chef John Folse was showing off his stuff. Galatoire's chef Brian Landry came behind him. John Besh will be here tomorrow. And all the others were pretty good, too. The hundred or so chairs in front of the stage were mostly full.
One chef here I didn't expect to see was Michael Uddo. He's working for John Folse now, adding another item to his lengthy resume. The high points were his hegemonies as chef at Bouligny, the G&E Courtyard Grill (which he owned with his brother), and (most recent) less than a year as namesake of the now-gone Mike's American Grill, in the former Sal & Sam's on Veterans Highway.
Michael told me that he and the majority owner of the place had plans too divergent from his own for him to remain. That was a disappointment. I thought the place filled an interesting niche in Metairie, and at first was quite good. But the prices were too high, and (especially after Mike left) the food became mediocre to poor. Mike says he's having a lot of fun working for Folse, who if nothing else has a burgeoning, solid business needing many talents.
Folse himself stopped by to chat on the air with me for awhile. He announced that he has yet another massive cookbook coming out, to further test the load limits of our cookbook shelves. He sure does crank those out.
The show ended early (nothing, but nothing gets in the way of any LSU sports), and by two o'clock the line of people who wanted to talk to me came to an end. I had to get back home as soon as possible. Mary Ann took off right before I did, but I didn't notice that her car was still there, and I locked the house up as she tells me I must. But she was actually just walking around the Cool Water Ranch with the dog, and had no keys. The key I hid for such an incident was not where I left it. So the best she could do was go over to the neighbors' house and hang the five hours until I came back home. There goes what little grace I earned from the last month's worth of good deeds, I thought. Actually, she didn't seem mad at all.
I was shoveling through the week's accumulation of loose ends on my desk, having a conversation with the Marys about dinner, when I got to an e-message that brought me up with an expletive. It was the reminder I asked to be sent about the Jesuit High School Celebration!, their annual feed and fundraiser.
I'd forgotten all about it. I have been part of the auction aspect of that event since Jude reattached me to the school in 2003. Even though he's long gone from there, I continue as an auctioneer, glad-hand the chefs who are nice enough to serve food, and sell a dinner hosted by me every year. I'd do anything for Jesuit, which largely made me who I am.
But I have an ulterior motive. I'm hoping that they will consider my contributions to the school of great enough value that, when the fiftieth anniversary of when I should have graduated from there rolls around, they will give me an honorary diploma. The policy of the school is that this cannot be done until 2018. I was kicked out of Jesuit after my grades tanked in junior year. (I had a car and worked all the time, is why.) It's the biggest piece of unfinished business in my life. So I'm doing all I can to keep my nose clean until then. I hope Father O'Neill--who never taught me at Jesuit, but for some reason remembers me and always stops to talk with me--is still there in 2018 to testify in my favor. My only other connection is Father Tony McGinn, the accomplished president of Jesuit for many years. But he's decided the time has come to move on. So I have to start working on his successor as soon as one is named.
An embarrassing moment occurred. My dinner for six went for $1,225 in the silent auction. I was the auctioneer for Father McGinn's dinner for six in the live auction. The bidding got up to $1,100 and froze. I made the point that there was no way a dinner with me could possibly go off at a higher price than the esteemed leader of the school, and we needed to get the bids up to at least $1,226. It didn't happen, despite my best cajoling. I hope that doesn't torpedo my honorary diploma.
The best dish of the night, by the way, were the shrimp and grits from Mr. B's and the unusual beef lasagna being prepared by Domenica. (Mary Ann was especially moved by the latter, and went through more pieces of the stuff than she cared to admit.) Also good were the crepes being made by Chef Brian Landry from Galatoire's. Hey! That's the second time he's turned up today. He was at the Home and Garden Show, too. He's a fellow Blue Jay, is why he's here tonight. Jesuit never lets its own go, nor vice-versa.
