Walk Where Van Gogh Walked

Nothing inspires a menu more than great ingredients. There is no place to find better ingredients that a great farmers market. Vincent Van Gogh lived in St Remy de Provence. We went to St Remy to see the setting that inspired so many of our favorite paintings. While there, we happened on a farmer’s market that was truly inspirational. 

Walking through the countryside where Vincent found inspiration for so many of his paintings, you can still see the same settings. The tour does a good job of setting the backgrounds of today, to the paintings of the late 19thcentury. You can see the field that Vincent painted and the cafe that inspired Cafe Terrace at Night.

Move into the village of St Remy on the farmer’s market day and you can see all kinds beauty. I once got into trouble with my friend, chef Lucien Vendome, by saying he was an artist. We were waiting on our flight in Sao Paulo Brazil. He argued that calling him an artist was a misnomer. Van Gogh painted paintings that would be enjoyed for centuries. Chefs cook food. The food may be pretty to look at, but people eat it and it is gone. Our discussion went on for a while as our flight got delayed. The compromise was that great chefs are somewhere between artisans and artists. All I can say is that the beauty of the ingredients being sold that day in St Remy could make any cook look good.

The irony of this story is that Van Gogh was not a food person. He suffered from stomach troubles and was quoted as saying:  “Perhaps you will not understand, but it is true that when I receive the money, my greatest appetite is not for food …” but the appetite for painting is even stronger.” So here he was in St Remy surrounded by fabulous ingredients, which he did not enjoy. This may also explain the reason he lived in St. Remy was as a patient at the local insane asylum. Fortunately, his doctors encouraged him to paint as therapy for his troubles.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Her Favorite White Devil

My friend Doris Hill passed away this week. Doris and I worked together at Kraft Food Ingredients where she was the Director of Human Resources. She was a good friend and a GIFTED LISTENER. Once after a particularly arduous business trip to Japan, I was in her office late one night complaining about the difficulty of doing business in Japan. I explained that the Japanese just don’t like us. Right off the plane from the US they give you a hard time. As you go through customs upon entry into Japan, there are 5 lanes for Japanese citizens and only one lane for everyone else. It so bad that they call us “Gaijin” which loosely translates into “White Devil”. Doris, an African American, chuckled and said: “Huh, that is the same thing we call you”.

Fast forward a few years when her mother passed away and I went to the viewing at her mothers church. Doris’s family members are pillars of the black community in Memphis and the church was packed with people from the community. Upon seeing me, Doris announces to the congregation with a smile in her voice:

Paul is here…My favorite white devil. 

Even through the worst of times, Doris found ways to see the humor in life. Doris had struggles in her lifetime. Her husband was tragically murdered at an early age while they were on vacation in New Orleans. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Painfully, the trial of his murderer went on for years with the case being complicated by hurricane Katrina. Doris was a woman of powerful faith and that faith, enabled her to deal with all levels of challenges.

One of the most amazing accomplishments of Doris’s life was the creation of ESPN Academy of Memphis. The Education Scholarship Preparation Nurture academy gives needy children after school tutorial and support programs.  She founded the academy in 2001 that has empowered children to achieve their maximum potential in school and in life. It is hard to think of something more beneficial than helping children meet their potential. Doris was a gift, and we can help keep her gift growing by contributing to her ESPN Academy. 

DONATE TO THE ESPN ACADEMY 

After Doris retired, we would get together for lunch every January. Health issues were always a challenge for her. She never complained. She never asked: why me? We always enjoyed a laugh together and unfailingly, she reminded me that I was:

HER FAVORITE WHITE DEVIL 

Doris lives on in our memory and by the continuing impact her ESPN Academy has on the children of Memphis. We were all lucky to have her in our lives.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Can I Throwaway My Cookbooks?

My sister Joan is a cookbook person. As kids growing up, I can remember her coming home from school and poring over a cookbook with a glass of milk. Today she spends her summers on her   island in New York’s Thousand Islands. She still has lots of cookbooks, but like most of us, she gets most of her recipes online. That is why Joan is questioning of the need to keep her collection. My answer was: Of course you need to keep your cookbooks. I don’t think people will be throwing away their family bible simply because they go to the Internet to check out Facebook in the morning. Books, cookbooks in particularly, are part of Joan’s DNA. And, that is a good thing.

Joan and her husband Brian are wonderful hosts. They spend their summers on the St Lawrence River, right on New York border with Canada. Their little island has been in Brian’s family for generations and is a wonderful place to visit, but it isn’t exactly easy to get to. Joan and Brian have been going there for years, but it has only been since our daughter moved to Ottawa Canada two years ago, that we have made it there. The pace of life on the river is low key. One can sit on the veranda and stare across the river and see Canada while watching very large ocean going vessels pass. With all the noise in the media about the southern wall with Mexico, one has to wonder where the northern wall will go? LOL.

Joan, Brian, Susan and I were probably our original supper club. We all went to college together In Plattsburgh NY which was also close the Canadian border. Back in the 1970’s there certainly wasn’t any wall. You  didn’t need a passport to get across the border. I don’t think we even had to show an ID. We would drive to Montreal for an evening. My buddy Ron Iles used to claim that the drunker you were, the easier it was to get across the border. His line was: “The Lord protects fools and drunks. That gives us double coverage.”

Back then we didn’t have much money for our supper club dinners. I can remember one late summer meal where I made Zucchini Parmesan with over-ripe squash from Joan and Brian’s garden. Iles, always a wizard with words, quickly began to shout praise for my Seeds Parmesan. Once you got past the larger seeds, the parmesan was pretty good and the price was right for hungry college students.

The menus for our dinners on Joan and Brian’s this week were a lot closer to Joan’s cookbook standards.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.