NEWS ALERT: I met Graham Kerr last night

[Jenise]

In fact, I got to hug and kiss him, too. Details (and photos) later--have to take one of the cars in for service.

[Robin Garr]

The Galloping Gourmet!?

I adored The Galloping Gourmet show!

Me too!!

[David M. Bueker]

Kerr needs to give Paula Deen a few lessons.

How is he doing? How old is he now? I think most of his shows.

[David M. Bueker]

Looks like 78 according to Wikipedia...and he has the same birhtdate as me, January 22!

Looks like 78 according to Wikipedia...and he has the same birhtdate as me, January 22!

Gee you seem kind of sprightly for 78! Or did you mean birthDAY?

"Me cherries are burning!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mY4Qi7J4ag

[David M. Bueker]

Looks like 78 according to Wikipedia...and he has the same birhtdate as me, January 22!

Gee you seem kind of sprightly for 78! Or did you mean birthDAY?

Pedants do vex me!!!!

[Jenise]

I'll post a pic, but the following video shot three years ago shows him perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4JtRPQYQHM&feature=related

He's about 5'10", with a large head that's just a bit out of proportion for the rest of his body--when Merv Griffin chose hosts for his game shows, he looked for this characteristic, said it looked amazing on TV. Graham hasn't changed at all since then, but what's more the video shows where he's coming from nowadays re food so it's worth watching.

I'm not sure where the video was shot, there's an opening sequence of him and Treena standing in front of a very modern home and I'm guessing that's his old residence on Camano Island. He lived there a long time, on waterfront and where he could keep his sailboat at hand. He and Treena have logged 30,000 miles by sailboat in their lives. But in 2008 he moved a little further inland and now lives in Mt. Vernon, a small quaint agricultural town off I-5 just south of Bellingham whose environs I live in. The move itself neccessitated he find something to do with his time (I suspect sailing is now off the agenda), and the timing of the move meant that the new kitchen garden he planted did spectacularly in the magically warm summer of 2009.

And that's the subject of his new book, Growing at the Speed Of Life. He apparently has never had any success at gardening before. On Camano he planted like three herbs and all died immediately, so that was the end of that. He had always hated gardening, and he never had the patience to try again (the 'Galloping' part of his moniker had a great deal to do with his impatient temperament) until this last move, fueled in some part by his increasing conviction that the world will run out of food by 2030. What they can't eat, he gives to the local Food Bank and he grows as much as he can so he can give as much as he can.

And that's key to who Graham Kerr is today. He's deeply religious, but he doesn't prosletyze. It's just part of his very fabric, so if you're going to chat with him for an hour you're going to hear a few references because he makes choices based on what he believes a higher power has directed him to do. Some of that came up when he talked about being on Rachel Ray's show. They flew him first class to New York. And he appeared on the show, being the last and most waited-for among a cadre of food royalty. After the show he was ferried by limo to his hotel, where they'd booked him in a penthouse suite. But instead of feeling good, it all felt terribly hollow. He called sitting in his room that day one of the lowest moments of his life.

He's an extremely giving, loving man; an extremely GOOD man. All that affectionate sugar-talk of the old TV show was no act, it's who he really is. I got a big laugh for introducing him to Bob with, "Bob's my last crush but you were my first!" (the news that I was just 10 at the time only daunted his spirits a little ) and that big both-arms-wrapped-around-me hug later as I said goodnight. But food isn't what we talked about, except where he practically cried with regret talking about what it was like to realize that all that clarified butter and cream had done to Treena's health. "I just love her," he said simply, "always have. I've known her since she was 10 years old--I was 11--and loved her all this time, and there just isn't anything I wouldn't do for her." I fell in love all over again.

His cooking philosphy now? It's not about cultural-identification or prescription, like "low-fat", it's "Do no harm." And that applies to our bodies, the ground we live on and the water supply on which we depend. Which means they live on a fully organic plant-based diet as neccessitated by Treena's diabetes, naturally high cholesterol and history of heart attack and stroke.

So that's what happened.

Jenise, how exciting for you!
I enjoyed his shows all those years ago and his book The Galloping Gourmet was the first cook book my partner ever gave me.
And it probably helped send me on the path of food obsession.
The video you referred to is really nice, he does come across as charming and honest.

Very cool. He was my first crush too. I thought he was so funny!

Sweet!!

So where did you have the chance to talk with him?

[Jenise]

I enjoyed his shows all those years ago and his book The Galloping Gourmet was the first cook book my partner ever gave me. And it probably helped send me on the path of food obsession.

I was already obsessed with food as a kid, but it was from Graham that I learned about the foods (and with them, some classic French technique) that I needed to eventually understand, like crepes and quenelles. I pestered my mother daily with questions about why we didn't make these foods. It was from Graham that I first heard the words "reduction sauce", and realized that was the ticket out from the boredom of my mother's dilute and pasty gravies.

[Jenise]

Very cool. He was my first crush too. I thought he was so funny!

Indeed, and lively and playful. No adult male in my universe was anything like that.

[Jenise]

Sweet!!

So where did you have the chance to talk with him?

He came to a meeting of the Whatcom Horticultural Society. Some of the members helped him get his garden established. I was not previously a member, but I am now!

Oh, good lord, I'd forgotten about Graham Kerr. I used to watch him on TV back in the 1970s - some short cooking segment that came on between shows in the early evening. What a buzz!