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The Stew

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 4, 2008

FEAR AND DINING WITH HUNTER

University of Florida journalism professor William McKeen has a new biography of journalist Hunter S. Thompson coming out this summer, "Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson." Thompson died in 2005 from a self-inflicted gunshot.

In McKeen's book, there is a chapter about the difficulties Thompson experienced while writing his book "The Curse of Lono." It offers a fascinating glimpse at, of all things, the great author's dining habits in Fairhope, Ala., as he and friend Tom Corcoran worked through a patch of writer's block:

"Hunter and Corcoran had a standing appointment for a late breakfast every day at Julwin's Restaurant. Hunter spread out his new 'Lono' fragments over the table and asked Corcoran to help organize what he had." Corcoran read the latest material, while Hunter consumed his standard breakfast:

•One pot of coffee

•One Wild Turkey in a tumbler with only two ice cubes

•Two Bloody Marys

•Two large glasses of orange juice

•Two Heinekens
•Four pieces of toast

•Four whole grapefruit

•Six eggs

•Eight sausage links

Corcoran, a novelist and songwriter (he penned the hit song "Fins" with singer Jimmy Buffett, as well as such novels as "The Mango Opera," "Gumbo Limbo" and the forthcoming "Hawk Channel Chase"), was a catalyst for the author while "Lono" was being written.

"I was outlining it for him," Corcoran said of their spectacular breakfasts. "He'd written most of these scenes, but they weren't in any order."

After reading that breakfast order, I wondered if there was any significance. Reached by e-mail, Corcoran said it served multiple goals.

"Part of placing such a huge breakfast order was for impact - to draw attention to himself," Corcoran told me by e-mail. "Part was to run up a huge tab so the owners appreciated his business and might better tolerate his presence. Part was because his breakfasts - anywhere - were celebrations, perhaps to salute his survival to a new day, or his ability to pay the tab. (Room service personnel at hotels always were amazed to find that the mass of food on the cart was for only one or two people.)

"Anyway, HST quickly became a 'regular' in Julwin's - and the waitresses were quite charmed by his antics," Corcoran says. "They even gave him a Julwin's - The Family Restaurant ball cap; essentially made him an honorary local."

Thompson's friends mention breakfast as key to his work process, McKeen says. Thompson's assistant of 23 years, Deborah Fuller, told the biographer that it was the first of his daily rituals.

McKeen's book comes out in July. He'll be visiting Tampa's Inkwood Books during a promotional tour in early August. You can pre-order the Thompson book on Amazon.com.

SPIKE DONE IN BY SCANDALOUS SCALLOPS

Former Clearwater Beach resident Spike Mendelsohn has packed his knives and left Bravo's "Top Chef" cooking competition show. The New York-based cook, who made it to the final five, was eliminated last week after a dish he cooked included frozen scallops that came out less than stellar. The dish, and his elimination as a result of it, has been the talk of food blogs all week over what the Eater LA blog dubbed as "Scallopgate."

Rick Tramonto, the chef at whose Chicago restaurant the competitors cooked, says he doesn't buy frozen scallops and that show producers planted them in his cooler. "Top Chef" head judge Tom Colicchio then blogged that the scallops came from Allen Bros., which provided food for the cooks to use.

Mendelsohn told me last week after the show aired that Tramonto would never use frozen seafood. He suspects the producers put the scallops in the cooler.

"My mistake was that I didn't take the time to look at them, inspect them and see what I was getting," he says. "I just took it for granted that the scallops in that cooler were going to be top-notch for this episode. That's where I bit it. From that point on, when I realized they were frozen, I knew I had scallops and had to use them."

Mendelsohn, who is working to open Good Stuff Eatery in Washington, D.C., says the exposure for him was tremendous, despite the drunken groupie who climbed up the side of his apartment building one night. His pick to win? Richard Blais.

"Experience puts him in that position," he says. "He's 35 years old. He's well-trained. He's well-traveled. I'm 27. Eight more years is a huge amount of experience."

Read the rest of my interview with Mendelsohn on my blog, The Stew, at TBO.com, keyword: Stew.

YUM-O LA REVOLUCON!

Had to laugh a little at the kerfuffle last week over a scarf worn by the Princess of All Media Rachael Ray in a Dunkin' Donuts ad. Seems some took its resemblance to a keffiyeh, or a traditional headdress worn by Arab men as a symbolic gesture of support for terrorism.

It's a scarf, people. An accessory. A neck warmer. Not a subway bombing.

Regardless, it's fun to think of Rachael Ray as some sort of culinary insurgent.

Rachael Che, anyone?

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