Under Mackerel Sky by Rick Stein – A Memoir A friend in Australia recently told me she had been to Rick Stein’s restaurant. To which I replied that I didn’t know she was in the UK. To this she answered “I wasn’t.” This got me curious. I knew who Rick Stein was and associated him […]
Pierre Troisgros 1928 – 2020
“Excuse me Michel may I have a quick word.” When that question was asked I knew I was headed for deep/uncharted waters. I sat up a little straighter. I was now in the presence of Pierre Troisgros. I was in the middle interviewing his son Michel about French culinary tradition that the directions that things […]
An Unexpected Audience
You don’t start out with the intention of making a bad film. You want to make a film that people will like, that people will appreciate, and that would garner a larger audience. A while back, I had made a short film about a cheese shop in the heart of New York’s little Italy. One […]
From The Bookshelf Tom Higgins
“By any chance have you read a book called Spotted…” “I’ve read it.” Chef William Page answered before I could even finish giving the title of the book. He knew it because to a certain extent he lived it. Page, an Australian, had garnered a Michelin Star for his restaurant Le Lievre Gourmand in the […]
Film festivals
Because you can’t obviously have a group of strangers sitting together in a dark room film festivals have been hard hit this year. And it’s tough. It’s tough for everybody. It’s tough for the festival organizers, often times voulutiers who work hard to get these shows going. It’s tough for the audiences because they can’t […]
From The Bookshelf : Indian Takeaway by Hardeep Singh
A while back I bought it at one of the many wonderful bookstores along Charing Cross Rd. in London a couple of years ago, and it was sitting in my ‘to read’ pile for a little bit longer than it should have. But I finally got around to reading it. It was called Indian Takeaway […]
Cinematic Inspiration – The/My Creative Process
When inspiration hits, your mind starts racing. You think, Oh, here’s something here we could do. Could this be a film project? What could we do? How do we do it? We’ve got to do it. What becomes the imagery? THe theme? Sooner, rather than later, you have the whole idea of what it wants […]
GUY Fieri
CBS Sunday Morning recently did a great piece by Guy Fieri. I met Guy years ago. It was right after he won The Next Food Network Star competition. It was in Bobby Flay’s Cafe Americano restaurant, with one of his buddies. They happened to be close to my table, so I just went up and […]
Train Geek
I have been browsing the Internet for model train equipment, specifically the HO gauge to work on my mini photographs. This is not something I expected to be doing, but I’ve got to admit, some of the stuff is kind of neat. What I want to make sure is that you’re not just placing something […]
Quid Pro Quo
A while back I came across a book, which I really liked. It was on the website, and after discussion we decided to make it one of our Books of the Year, for that year. Fast forward a bit; I finally got a chance to go to this particular chef’s restaurant. Really liked it. Met […]