We here at Haute Plates Small Machinery and Upscale Landscaping are looking forward to so many things. We are looking forward to eating a meal out and more particularly eating out in places with other people. To that extent…
I had an interesting conversation the other night with a chef, Tom, who lives outside of Louisiana. He’s a really sharp guy who is cooking food inspired in large part by his experience living and cooking professionally in New…
As many of you know, I was one of the lucky humans to visit outer space recently. No, it was not with Branson or Bezos; I was on the rocket built by Joe Lotrglio. I am told that we…
I attended a happy hour event hosted by one of my favorite restaurants, Boucherie. It was a “thank you” for Chef’s Brigade and it was awful nice. I got to talk to a number of restaurateurs who participated in…
I am not one of those people who thinks that English food is awful. Because it’s not. Done right, an English breakfast is among the best in the world. They know a thing or two about sausages and their…
I’m not a huge fan of the capitalization where “COOLinary New Orleans” is concerned, but I’m a fan of the endeavor. It’s a chance for people, mostly locals, to check out some restaurants that maybe they’d been meaning to…
Two of my offspring have decided they are interested in cooking. I am happy about this because I also love to cook but I am also concerned that I will not be able to convey my knowledge about cooking…
This is the time of year in which restaurants are typically slow. It is hot and it is humid and we don’t have the tourists we normally do during the year. That’s in a good year, but this year?…
I thought I would write something about my garden this time around because my mother-in-law, Pamela, was a gardener and I have tried to emulate her green thumb. Some years I have things that succeed, and some years I…
I have not been dining out very much these last months. I have not been out at all for that matter and yet my garden is a mess. My strawberries are consumed by snails. My peas are suffering from…
There are restaurants opening around town, which is not all that unusual. One is a pizza joint that was also a pizza joint before. Another is a Haitian restaurant that, when I first ran into it, was at the…
As reported by the Times Picayune Advocate, the mask mandate has been lifted in New Orleans, per new guidelines from the CDC. I don’t know how to feel about it, to be honest. Given my work, I’ve been dining out…
Chef Gerard Maras posted a quote from Alton Brown on Facebook recently: “Very good cooks who are employed as ‘chefs’ rarely refer to themselves as ‘chefs.’ The refer to themselves as ‘cooks.’” It made me think about the definition…
I have the distinction of having passed the two-week period following my second shot that means I am officially vaccinated. I do not feel any different, unless you count the slight easing of tension that knowing I am unlikely…
I received an email recently from Wetlands Sake, reminding me that there is a sake brewery in New Orleans. Moreover, they’re using a short grain rice developed by the LSU Agriculture Center that is being grown just for them. The…
Nor am I playing at Magritte. I simply have too much respect for you to pretend that I could “fool” you. Also, I forgot it was going to be April 1 when I wrote this piece. If you are…
We were looking for take out the other night and I wanted Thai. My wife, whom I love dearly, said she’d heard about a place called Secret Thai and her friends recommended it. I know at least one of…
The first thing I tasted when I dined recently at Silk Road was a stuffed grape leaf made by Chef Rafik “Rafiky” Abohattab, who is doing a “popup” as Torshi at Silk Road until March 28. It has been…
Not long ago I bought my son a chef’s knife. He’s 19 and attending college virtually, but he’s going to be there in-person before long and he’s expressed an interest in cooking. Recently he asked whether we could get…
I would first of all like to thank those of you who’ve already sent me birthday wishes. This year the celebration of my entry into the world falls on a Sunday, and I am told that because of the…
My wife and I have, for the most part, been ordering takeout rather than dining in restaurants because there is a pandemic and we have family at a higher risk of bad outcomes from exposure to the virus than…
I read a lot of things on the internet and visit a lot of different websites. One I visit from time to time is called Vice. Like most other websites, I typically visit it because I see a link…
Carnival is upon us, despite the restrictions. We are all, I hope, looking for ways to celebrate the season without undue risk. Let us not forget that we’re celebrating, ostensibly, the last day we can before we start 40…
Before you know it, it will be Carnival. My wife and daughters recently visited the King Cake Hub and I am told it was delightful. They came home with a cake from Haydel’s, and I was well pleased. “It’s…
It does not feel like Carnival. It is Wednesday as I write this. I know that because I have a phone, but over the last few months I’ve had trouble keeping up with the day of the week. I’m…
I now weigh 157 pounds. That is not, statistically, a lot for a man of my age and height. The problem is that whereas some people can wear weight well, at 157 pounds I look something like a pincushion.…
I’m going to be honest: I dreaded Mondays when I was a kid. Mondays meant red beans and I did not like red beans. I ate the sausage, but the beans were not my thing. It wasn’t until I…
Last week I apologized for the light tone of the piece I was writing in the context of ever-rising numbers of COVID infections and the prospect of a mutated strain that would be even more infectious. I was naïve,…
2020 was the sort of year that makes a dumpster fire look pretty good. As a person who writes about food and restaurants, it’s been a grim time. There have been some notable openings but a lot of closings,…
I like Donald Link and have since I first met him. He wrote a letter to the editor that was published in The Advocate the other day, and I think he pretty effectively expressed the issue a lot of…
Robert D. Peyton was born at Ochsner Hospital and, apart from four years in Tennessee for college and three years in Baton Rouge for law school, has lived in New Orleans his entire life. He is a strong believer in the importance of food to our local culture and in the importance of our local food culture, generally. He has practiced law since 1994, and began writing about food on his website, www.appetites.us, in 1999. He mainly wrote about partying that year, obviously.
In 2006, New Orleans Magazine named Appetites the best food blog in New Orleans. The choice was made relatively easy due to the fact that Appetites was, at the time, the only food blog in New Orleans.
He began writing the Restaurant Insider column for New Orleans Magazine in 2007 and has been published in St. Charles Avenue, Louisiana Life and New Orleans Homes and Lifestyles magazines. He is the only person he knows personally who has been interviewed in GQ magazine, albeit for calling Alan Richman a nasty name. He is not proud of that, incidentally. (Yes, he is.)
Robert’s maternal grandmother is responsible for his love of good food, and he has never since had fried chicken or homemade biscuits as good as hers. He developed his curiosity about restaurant cooking in part from the venerable PBS cooking show "Great Chefs" and has an extensive collection of cookbooks, many of which do not require coloring, and some of which have not been defaced.
Robert lives in Mid-City with his wife Eve and their three children, and is fond of receiving comments and emails. Please humor him.
