I have fond memories of childhood Easter lunches spent at my grandmother’s house.

Each year she set a formal table with the finest china, sterling silver, crystal and linen. Placed in the center of the large table was a simple arrangement of fragrant narcissus and paper whites. more...

I recently enjoyed two meals at one of the South’s greatest breakfast joints.

The Silver Skillet in Atlanta has been dishing out breakfast for almost 50 years. It is on my top 10 list of the South’s greatest independent restaurant joints. The others – with the exception of the Camellia Grill in New Orleans – all have one thing in common: apathetic service. more...

Food packaging has come a long way from the days of grandma canning fruits and vegetables and selling them to the downtown café.

Today, ketchup, milk and mayonnaise are shipped in bags, boxes, cans, packets, bottles (glass or plastic) and cartons. Potato chips, which used to be packed in clear bags, now come in non-see-through bags filled mostly with air. more...

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.

As I scan my mental Rolodex for the greatest breakfast memories of my life, several unforgettable recollections pop up. A simple cantaloupe and buttered-toast breakfast – just me and my paternal grandmother in her breakfast room 35 years ago, a pancake and bacon breakfast with my maternal grandfather and grandmother while they were babysitting me one summer, my mom and brother eating salt mackerel, biscuits and eggs at our fish camp in the early 1970s, a Blackberry Farm anniversary/birthday breakfast with my wife overlooking the foggy foothills of the Smoky Mountains, and any number of breakfasts with my children. more...

Rarely have I been so full that I could eat no more.

Last week I was asked to judge a food competition for the University of Mississippi Medical Center's “A Taste of UMC” event. Well before the event was over, I reached one of those rare occasions. more...

If I were forced to compile a list of what I believe are the top five fine-dining restaurants in Mississippi, as of today the list would include – in no certain order – City Grocery on the square in Oxford, KC’s in Cleveland, the Purple Parrot Café in Hattiesburg, Nick’s in Jackson and the Port House in Biloxi. more...

As a result of this column, I am invited to a broad array of events.

In addition to the typical food-judging sessions, charitable fundraising events, civic-club meetings, literary festivals, library readings and women’s-group gatherings, I have been asked to attend chitlin cookoffs, chitlin tastings, SPAM tastings, coon hunts, chitlin slingings (what is it with chitlins?), hog killings, a possum picking, about 637 supper clubs, something called a beast feast and small-town festivals celebrating everything from pecans and blueberries to … you guessed it … chitlins. more...

As a society, we have grown too used to picking up a brown paper sack at the drive-through, bringing it home, pulling it out on a TV tray, watching television and calling it supper.

It is a shame. more...

Over the years there have been many funky foods introduced to the eating public.

A short list of funky foodstuffs that have hit our grocery store shelves over the years would include:

A dessert called “Garlic Cake”, which happened to be the only dessert that followed you around for two days. more...

My friend, Danny Miller, is a lucky man.

He is lucky for many reasons. He has a beautiful wife, a great job, a great home and a golf handicap in the single digits. more...

I used to serve as a lunch volunteer at my daughter’s school.

My assigned day was Wednesday. Wednesday is sandwich day, ham or turkey. Simple enough, right? Not so fast. more...

A report from a member of the United Church of the Holy Covered-dish or Methodists and the art of cat flossing

A group of third-grade students were working on a world religions lesson. The teacher asked them to bring an item that was related to their family’s faith. The first little boy said, “I am Jewish, and this is my Star of David.” The second boy said, “I am a Muslim, and this is my prayer rug.” The third boy said, “I am Catholic, and this is my rosary.” The fourth boy walked to the front of the class and said, “I am a Methodist and this is my casserole dish.” more...

2004 was another interesting year in the life of this column.

We added our 25th newspaper and published an illustrated anthology of the column titled, “Nobody’s Poet.” more...

I wouldn’t want to live in New York City but it is nice to blow into town every once in a while and eat my way across the island of Manhattan.

New York is the nation’s premier restaurant city, a restaurateur’s paradise. For me, any trip there is filled, first and foremost, with eating. On this most recent visit, I ate, and ate and ate some more. more...

I keep a food journal to record my dining experiences.

My wife and I eat out often, and we usually invite friends to dine with us. In my journal I take notes on individual dishes and the components of those dishes, while recording the entire dining experience – which dishes were most memorable, which items I would recreate in my restaurants and the overall atmosphere of the establishment. I also ask our guests to sign the journal with any thoughts, comments or quotes they might want to share. When we dine with friends who happen to be artists, they usually sketch something in the journal. more...

I know a man who never has to eat leftovers. He is a lucky man, indeed.

I grew up eating leftovers. My mom, the Tupperware Queen, was a huge proponent of cleaning out the refrigerator by dumping it all onto three or four plates and calling it “supper.” This happened once every week and made for some interesting food pairings. more...

Of all of the established holiday gift-giving traditions, fruitcake is the worst.

My great-grandmother’s fruitcakes were legendary. She lived just outside Nashville, Tenn. As a child I grew up hearing stories of her celebrated fruitcakes, and how U.S. Senators and Congressmen purchased them at Christmastime. “They weren’t like ordinary fruitcakes,” my relatives would say, “They were great. You should find the recipe and produce them. You’ll make a mint!” more...

I am the only food columnist in the country who receives hate mail.

The list of organizations and individuals I have managed to upset grows larger each week. Over the years I have somehow managed to ruffle the feathers of Barbra Streisand fans, SPAM lovers, the executives at Hormel, Waffle House patrons, people who hate people who put sugar in their cornbread, mincemeat pie eaters, marshmallow lovers, Atkins-dieters, the Atkins corporate office, Atkins corporate lawyers, the entire citizenry of Great Britain, the campaign manager of a Louisiana gubernatorial candidate, the School Cafeteria Workers Association, my mom, my friend Chris Bowen’s dad, and last but not least, the good folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who call me a “predator” and a “barbarian.” more...

“It was a bold man that first ate an oyster.” – Jonathan Swift

“It was a bored lunkhead that first fried a Twinkie.” – Robert St. John more...

I often wonder if other food columnists receive as much hate mail as I do. Actually, I often wonder if other food columnists receive any hate mail at all.

I could understand receiving hate mail if I wrote an op-ed column and was weighing in on important social, political and economic issues. I would expect hate mail if I were a sports journalist dealing with the heated arguments involving sports rivalries. But this is food, folks. more...

As I look back on the 2004 Thanksgiving season through a post-tryptophanic haze, I realize that I am grateful for many things. Not just the typical family, friends and good-health thankfulness, mind you, but a deeper gratitude, an appreciation that, even as strange as my life gets, it’s even weirder out there in the real world. more...

Last week I met a gentleman who claims to love mincemeat pie.

When I asked him to list the specific ingredients needed to prepare a mincemeat pie, he couldn’t answer. more...

If I were to compile a list of things I truly despise it would include: the dentist’s office, hip-hop music, traffic jams, Barbara Streisand’s politics, neckties, being late, Anne Murray’s singing voice and marshmallows on sweet potato casseroles. more...

The Da Vinci Code is not the only form of secret encryption in existence.

My hometown of Hattiesburg had its own secret society filled with coded documents, clandestine meetings and cryptic writings. This surreptitious group was more secretive than the Illuminati, more cunning than the Order of Sion and second to no one when it came to enigmatic riddles. more...