Tramonto's Game Changer

Operation H.O.T. Trailer from Christopher Shepherd Films on Vimeo.

Restaurant R'evolution recently had the great blessing to be part of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I traveled, along with Chef Fred Heurtin of Chef John Folse & Company, to the Bagram Airfield military base in northeastern Afghanistan, as part of Operation H.O.T. (Honoring Our Troops), a large-scale show and dinner for 5,000 U.S. Army and Air Force troops.

Going into an active war zone was never on my personal bucket list. Operation H.O.T. was the brainchild of Chef Charles Carroll of River Oaks Country Club in Houston, who is a close friend of both John's and mine. We've known each other for years because he invited me to participate in the annual culinary events held at the club. Charles is an incredibly special person -- a motivational speaker and author in addition to being a well-respected chef -- and he had wanted to do something to give back to our troops, ever since John invited him to go to Afghanistan a few years back to feed the troops. That trip unfortunately fell through, but ever since, it remained in the back of his mind. A year ago, Charles was having a beer with his friend Chief David Longstaff, a high-ranking Army official, and he was telling him this pipe dream, and he said he could help make it happen, as he is in charge of all the food that gets delivered to the troops in the Middle East bases.


 One member of River Oaks, and a very good friend of Charles's, is Joanne King Herring. Joanne is a passionate civilian activist who has worked for decades to improve conditions for our troops abroad and to create change in war-torn areas through providing services and education. She was protrayed by Julia Roberts in the movie "Charlie Wilson's War," and also offered a lot of support and enthusiasm to make the trip happen.

  

Rick Moonen and me in our body armor



So, after an event that Charles and I did together last year, he began calling people and asking them what their interest was in putting together an old-school, USO-style event with performers, a special "taste of home" meal, and video messages for the troops. For part of the show, he wanted to integrate an "Iron Chef"-style cooking competition, so he called Chef Rick Moonen and me. We were both hesitant at first, but with some time and consideration, I finally decided that not only was it possible, but that I had to do it. Because I’m not a child of war, I’ve never been directly affected by war the way that so many Americans have, so I really didn’t have the appreciation for what it's all about. I knew that for me, going to Afghanisgan would be an eye-opening, game-changing experience. If only I could have realized just how much so.





The trip was over a year in the making, with Charles and his assistant, Hilmi Ahmad, working on it seven days a week for the final six months. It took that long just to obtain the necessary level of military security and clearance, coordinate the logistics and paperwork, and raise the $178,000 it took to make it happen. The idea was to bring a taste of home to the troops. We would be cooking for 5,000 troops of a base of 30,000 – the rest were all in active duty while we were there. Charles’s vision was to give them 5 or 6 hours off to feel like they were at home. Many of the troops came from the South – Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas – so we thought we’d do a taste of the South with BBQ, gumbo, étouffée, the whole works.



We all flew into D.C. from various parts of the U.S., and we had a debriefing with Chief Longstaff. He was our leader, so he flew in to escort us from Washington to Kuwait, where we spent six hours in a barracks, changed into the body armor and helmets we'd wear for the rest of the journey, and then hopped on board a cargo plane from Kuwait to Bagram. We had to fly in the middle of the night for security reasons, sitting in jump seats around the sides of the cargo plane, with tanks and Humvees in the center. There were no bathrooms, no drinks, nothing for six and a half hours. All told, it took us two and a half days to get from the U.S. to the base in Afghanistan that would be our home for the next three days.



When we finally arrived, we showered, ate, and started prepping. John's manufacturing company air freighted tons of donated food over for the event, and there was Gulf seafood that was donated by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board. It was incredible to see how they provide food to serve 30,000 troops every day. There are contractors there who handle the cooking, and literally miles of refrigerated storage. It made me glad to see that these guys are fed really well, with hearty meals, fresh fruit, and even a salad bar.



So when we go there we got all set up for the show. The tour production company putting the show together had shipped all of their gear there, and they were all setting up their stage. There were comedians, impersonators, magicians, a hypnotist, and even a U2 cover band to make it feel like a big festival. Rick's and my "Iron Chef"-style cook-off would be just part of an 8-hour show designed to bring a piece of home to the troops and take their minds off of battlefield life for a brief window of time.

The "Iron Chef" battle between Rick Moonen and me



 The theme for our "Iron Chef" battle was “Battle MRE,” which refers to the dehydrated food packs (Meals Ready to Eat) that the troops take into combat with them. We had to use the MRE packs as part of our recipes. We did a 60-second “quick-fire” challenge with Gulf seafood. Then we got interviewed and went into the battle itself. I made a crab pasta, incorporating the spice packets and the beans from the chili with beans from the MRE pack in the pasta. The troops were so enthusiastic about the battle, cheering us on. It was so much fun.



Joanne King Herring with Julia Roberts
(Photo credit: joanneherring.com)



Charles had gotten video messages recorded by every living president, as well as several celebrities (including Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, of "Charlie Wilson's War"), all thanking the troops for their sacrifices in defense of the country. Those videos were screened between the various show acts, and you could see how much they meant to the troops. The first message, which Charles played to open the show, was from Joanne King Herring herself. He wanted to show the troops that there are civilians back home working on their cause, too. He introduced her as the hardest-working civilian for the military. As I write this, there are shovels down in Afghanistan due to her efforts, and they’re building the first self-sustaining village in the country, with food, water, jobs, and medical care. She’s been the one driving that project from day one – a mission to fight the war without guns. The village is being built with the help of the Navy and Marines, and if this takes off, then the government will throw its support behind it and help it grow. It was clear how touched the troops were. They even recorded a video message back to Joanne, yelling "We love you, Joanne!"



Charles also brought gifts for the troops -- everything from candy, t-shirts, knives, and suntan lotion, to these beautiful white polished rocks in leather bags. The rocks were meant to serve as a symbol of solidarity with people back home. Charles gave a wonderful speech about how these rocks came with love and prayers from home and were meant as a source of support and memories. He wanted them to signify this special day long after we were gone.

Signing the missile on an F-16.



There were enough poignant and unforgettable moments to fill 10 blog posts, but I'll just mention a few. We had the chance to visit a military hospital, where they treat the soldiers who do all of the F-16 fighter plane runs, and met soldiers who had been injured in battle. We saw the war room where the generals met to plan the Bin Laden assassination. We stood on the flight lines with the F-16s and wrote on the missiles, which is a military tradition. We were presented with an American flag by two soldiers who had flown it in battle for us. We learned through first-hand experience that for every soldier who falls in battle, everyone on the base goes out to the main road and stands at attention as the bodies are loaded into planes and flown home.



The Operation H.O.T. team in our body armor

I initially had misgivings about this trip, but by the time we all got home, the only thing every single person said was, “When can we go back?” It was life-changing for all of us. A few days after our return was when President Obama began to announce the pull-out of some of the troops from Afghanistan, and so everyone is saying we should go to Iraq if there are still troops in Iraq next year. We’re hoping that the two-hour movie that filmmaker Christopher Shepherd shot of the trip will be a tool we can use to help raise the funds to do it again. We’ll be screening it at River Oaks on August 8 for everyone who took part in the trip, plus the donors who put up the money and helped us get there. Everyone will tell you that this show was different from any other show that's ever been undertaken at a military base abroad. We were there for three days, immersing with them and getting involved in the culture of the base. We really wanted to make a difference in their lives, not just put on a show. I hope we succeeded. All I know is that this trip changed the game for me, forever.

God bless.

- Rick







Bringing a Bite to the Big Apple…Swamp-Style

Chef Folse and The "Taste of the Bayou" Food Truck

I have been amazed at the huge success of Swamp People. Whether I’m talking to folks from Canada or Illinois, their first comment is about the program and how much they love it. I was approached a few weeks ago about going to New York City to promote the second season premiere of the program. Of course, I said “yes,” grabbed my camouflage chef jacket and headed north. My task: serving swamp delicacies to New Yorkers from the History® channel’s “Taste of the Bayou” food truck.

Crowds gathered to sample the swampland delicacies

The experience was a remarkable celebration of Louisiana cuisine and swampland culture. I climbed aboard our “swamp on wheels” and started dishing out alligator sauce piquante, mallard duck and smoked wild boar sausage gumbo, Louisiana red beans and rice with smoked nutria sausage, Louisiana crawfish étouffée, venison jambalaya and fricassee of swamp rabbit. I have to hand-it to New Yorkers. They were amazingly game to taste anything from the swampland of Louisiana. Over the four-day promotion (March 28 – 31) more than 13,000 free servings were handed out from the “Taste of the Bayou” food truck at prominent locations near Grand Central Station, Bryant Park, Penn Station, the Financial District, the Port Authority, Union Square and Chelsea.

I also had the opportunity to serve at a number of private tastings for executives of A&E Television Networks, Time Warner, Universal McCann, Initiative, Mindshare, Targeteast and ZenithOptimedia. I can assure you, these board rooms were a long way from the bayou.



Beware of Gator

I was thrilled to help promote the second season of Swamp People. The program was the best original series premiere ever on History® and ranked number one in its time period versus all television across key male and adult demographics. The second season premiered last week and can be seen every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT. Swamp People is drawing so much interest nationally and internationally that it’s quickly becoming a fabulous way to recruit visitors to Louisiana. So, come on down, get a taste of the bayou, and soon, you can eat with us, too, at Restaurant R’evolution. What? Of course, gator is on the menu!

R'evolution on the Road: Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Last weekend was the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which Food Network puts on. I was honored to be asked to participate for the fourth year, this time representing Restaurant R’evolution for the first time. In my opinion, South Beach is one of the best food and wine events in the country, so it was great to get Restaurant R’evolution out there on a national level. We passed out a lot of information about the restaurant, and people seemed excited, which is always fun to see.

Michael Symon at Burger Bash. Credit: SOBEFest.com

Jody (my chef de cuisine) and I arrived on Thursday morning, and the fun kicked off that night at Rachael Ray’s Burger Bash. This is the biggest and most anticipated party of weekend, where 40-some nationally acclaimed chefs compete for best burger. There were around 3,000 people there, and the wait to get in had to be almost 2 hours long at times. But the burgers were amazing. Iron Chef Michael Symon, the defending champion from last year, once again took home the coveted People’s Choice prize, and Marc Murphy of New York’s Landmarc won the Judge’s Choice award. View photos from the event here.

Friday was when the food and wine stuff – seminars, demos, tastings – started. Danny Meyer did a great Shake Shack seminar. There were wine seminars and tastings, and demos on this huge main stage tent they have set up on the beach with audiences in the hundreds.



Bobby Flay and Michael Symon at Bubble Q.
Credit: SOBEFest.com



Friday night was Bubble Q, Bobby Flay’s event that’s all about Champagne and BBQ. There were huge, elaborate ice carvings and outdoor grills and smokers. Rick Bayless was there doing these great tacos. The nice thing about South Beach is that all of the celebrity chefs actually come themselves, and they get to bring four people to help them (and most of them usually have at least 4 more), so the chefs actually get to greet guests themselves, pass out food and take pictures. It can make the lines pretty long, but it’s great that people get the chance to meet their favorite chefs. Each night, there were big stages with live music. One night it was KC and the Sunshine Band, and other nights there were famous DJs spinning, which really created a party vibe.



The Bubble Q tent. Credit: SOBEFest.com

Saturday was another day of seminars, demos and tastings. The main stage that morning kicked off at 11 a.m. with Emeril doing a demo, then Antony Bourdain and then Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence. It’s like watching the Food Network come to life, right on the beach. It also feels a little bit like the culinary version of Lollapalooza to me. Jody and I spent a good portion of that day prepping our dish for the event we were doing on Sunday, Paula Deen’s Down Home Cookin’ Sunday Gospel Brunch.

Saturday night was when the big sit-down events happened, which included a tribute dinner for Alain Ducasse, as well as the “Best of the Best” walk-around tasting with all of the top fine dining chefs. For the other big party that night, the theme was “The Best Thing I Ever Ate,” based on the Food Network show. That was really fun because the chefs got to recreate their favorite dishes from OTHER restaurants. Photos here.

Paula Deen and Maryel Epps. Credit: MiamiNewTimes.com

Jody and I didn’t party too hard because we knew that come Sunday, we’d need to have our game faces on for our event. I normally do the “Best of the Best” event, but this year because of R’evolution and our New Orleans connection, I did Paula Deen's Gospel Brunch, which was primarily Southern chefs. Maryel Epps, this incredible gospel singer, performed live, and all of the chefs were doing their renditions of classic Southern soul food – whole roasted pig, fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, black-eyed peas.
 


Shrimp & Grits "Bacon & Eggs"
Credit: MiamiNewTimes.com

We did our version of shrimp and grits: creamy grits with eggs chopped up and folded in, topped with head-on shrimp wrapped in bacon that we seared off and topped with a smoky tomato sauce. It was so great to get to do this event this year, especially since I’m a newcomer to the South. It was amazing working alongside Southern chefs like New Orleans' John Besh, Cat Cora (a proud Southern girl), Tim Love of Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in Texas, and Joseph Lenn of Blackberry Farm in Tennessee.

Emeril Lagasse at the Let Them Eat
Cake event. Credit: SOBEFest.com

Even though South Beach has a completely different vibe from New Orleans, there were moments when I felt like I was back in the French Quarter. We went to Martha Stewart and Emeril’s “Let Them Eat Cake” event with Duff from Ace of Cakes, and the theme was actually Mardi Gras. There were 20 different bakeries from all over the country doing these outrageous Mardi Gras cakes. What was really cool was that they took the entire top floor of a parking structure and transformed it into this massive event space for 2000 people. You could see the whole city of Miami spread out around you. It was a stunning sight.

Back in New Orleans, the whole team is focusing on Mardi Gras right now. Jody, Muhammad and Molly are all helping out down at the Royal Sonesta, as they enter the craziest time of year for the hotel. Personally, I’m focused on my new book, Scars of a Chef, which launches this week, so the next four weeks I’m pretty much booked with book tour stuff. Right now I’m headed to Chicago for the International Home and Housewares Show. Then I’m in New York next week for some TV stuff, and it’s LA after that. Earlier this week, I was at Bittersweet Plantation, wrapping up selection of glassware, china and silverware for the restaurant. The kitchen design is finished, which is great. When the book tour craziness is over next month, then we’ll be starting on brunch tastings. Then we’ll be working on all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into opening a restaurant, but nobody knows about: systems, recipes, costing, hiring.

And then comes the waiting for the place to physically be built. It all feels like it’s still a long way off, but there are fleeting moments when I realize that it will be open before we even know it. So for now, it’s just one day at a time.

- Rick

FL State of Mind

It’s been freezing here in NOLA, as cold as it’s been since I’ve lived here. In the 30s -- Chicago weather -- and it looks like it's ready to snow. It feels even colder because I've been going back and forth to Florida for events the past two weekends. Right after New Year's, I was in the Florida Keys for a four-day event at the Ocean Reef Club, where I cooked a four-course dinner at their private clubhouse.

I had never been in the Keys before, and it was great going out on the water, where there were these incredible private yachts owned by mega-billionaires. One of the Wirtz family members – the family that owns the Chicago Blackhawks – had a boat called The Blackhawk anchored there. I loved that Chicago connection!

It was also really cool seeing the wetlands down there. Here, when we go out to the marshland, it’s called bayou, and there it’s the Everglades. To my outsider’s eye, they looked fairly similar; although I’m sure locals would be able to see the differences.

Then it was back to freezing Louisiana, scraping ice off my windshield. Last week we did game tastings at Bittersweet Plantation, and then I prepped for the Gasparilla Inn Food & Wine Weekend, which John and I did together. Chef Peter Timmins hosted some of the nation’s leading chefs and wineries for a weekend of culinary events, tastings, demos and dinners. This was one of the first events that John and I have done together since we began working on R’evolution. We did a walk-around tasting of classic New Orleans dishes (étoufée, seafood gumbo and turtle soup), and then a demo together to talk about the food we served on the walk-around and how we’re reimagining it on our new menu.

I stayed for the Master Chef’s Dinner on Saturday night, a five-course dinner for 250 people that I cooked with four other chefs, each of us doing a course. I served roasted lobster with vanilla and micro herb salad, which is a preview of a sheep's milk ricotta gnocchi dish with lobster that we’re working on for R’evolution.

Stay tuned this week for more on our game dishes!

- Rick