Pack Your Spoons . . .

It's on. For one week only, Chef will be offering personalized Golden Spoon Travel Packs for those lucky Who Dats who have, in the line of Upper Terrace duty, obtained one. Perfect for training camp travel.

C. Grant's Lunch Bill

Charles Grant dropping $2,000 on a thank you lunch for Airline Highway administrative professionals makes Chef believe one of his longstanding dreams could soon become reality . . . . the Saints special teams squad buying the entire Cafe 641 a round of Budweiser on September 24, 2007.

Summer Tribute Menu: Budweiser

Chef looks up from his Budweiser to wipe his eyes. Deep lines of eye black ran down to his chin early this morning. No tribute pays enough respect to the Beer Man.

Chef can think of only one, a very small token to Michael Lewis, the legend.

Chef's menu pledge: Budweiser at every course, every meal until Thursday, September 6.

The recycled cans will be crafted into a life-size icon: a 5'8", 165-lb, 3D Beer Man sculpture donated to the Besthoff Sculpture Garden in City Park.

Cha-Ching!

Remember when Seth Green was cool? Remember when the Saintsations wore puffy sleeves?

Chef don't either.

But, he had to find something to get him juiced for the opening of today's mini-camp on Airline Drive this afternoon (besides a new tube of black and a freshly styled mustache, of course), and thanks to the Who Dat Zone's 1991 flashback, he did.

Through a Saint's Eyes

Supa Saint tracked down Mark Campbell's short film, apparently screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and summarized here.

Mini Camp Mecca

If NFL minicamps are tiny versions of summer training camp, then Chef wonders if the minicamp mecca is a smaller version of the training camp trip to Jackson, MS.

The Cafe 641 kitchen's been awfully busy of late, but count Chef in on at least one practice this weekend, even if incognito.

12 Minutes of Fame

12 minutes?! Are you serious?!

Chef didn't think it would be easy for heavyweight Olympic gymnast Walter Thomas to crack the starting lineup. But 12 minutes?!

Suppose it's time to confess. Chef sent Walter a special take-out meal the night before the Saints rookie mini-camp opened on Saturday. It was a sampler of Cafe 641 menus from 2006. Apparently, Walter didn't read the attached note:

Hi Walter. Hope these snacks give you a taste of New Orleans. Welcome to the team. Please don't attempt to eat all the Deviled Eagle Eggs. They give you gas and increase your chance of cramping.

Best,

Chef Who Dat