09/23/15 9:56am

Wendy's BBQ saucemaster laughs at your desire to know his secret.

Yesterday afternoon I was doing some virtual trail running in the gym when the above commercial for Wendy’s BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich came on. Even with the sound down I got the joke. When asked to divulge the recipe for his “secret sauce” the presumably Southern pitmaster and his assistant refuse to give up the goods laughing off the request.

The subsequent glamour shots of “our hickory smoked pulled pork” and a BBQ poutine of sorts looked so good that I couldn’t get them out of my head. I envisioned Wendy’s very own sauce bespattered, real deal pitmaster whipping up this pulled pork, a veritable Ed Mitchell of fast food. As a certified Kansas City Barbeque Society judge who’s been around BBQ pits and smokers of various and sundry sizes and configurations, including a stainless steel number whose firebox resembles a miniature bank vault, I know  this is nonsense. But Wendy’s and its ad agency are selling a fantasy, one that I clearly bought into as evidenced by my choice of a late night dinner. (more…)

10/31/14 12:10am
Zeus

Look for us in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater soon.

It’s not every day someone offers to put the name of my web site in lights. That’s exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago though when Zeusvision approached me with an offer to run digital display ads featuring C+M on the sides of buses driving through Los Angeles. At first, I was like really? And was frankly dubious. Then I remembered that I once made a T-shirt called Viva Queens y L.A. and took it as a sign from the Universe. (more…)

01/22/13 10:25am

Last week I received quite an honor, a recognition of my work if you will. Alas, it was not a James Beard Award. Nor was it another television appearance, although I do have one coming up February 27 at 9 p.m. on the Travel Channel. No, this was a far greater mark of prestige than any medal or TV spot.  The TripeMarketingBoard (@TripeUK) followed me on Twitter in response to a post about the Sichuan dish fu qi fei pian.

They also sent along a link to the fascinating film above: Marketing Tripe: a Brief History. I was especially intrigued by an old-timey still of an Italian eatery called Antonia’s Tripe & Pasta Hut. Along with such slogans as “Tripe for Stamina,” the whole thing seems fake. It is in fact quite legitimate as  a Google search for the Lancashire–based  Tripe Marketing Board reveals. And yes, there was an Antonia’s where they served pizza topped with reticular tripe, which is something I’d like to try. There is one thing that I am sure does not exist though, a Chinese Tripe Marketing Board.