Burying the Hatchet Job, Part II

On success and the future…

RICHMAN: Was the happiest moment of your life being named People magazine’s most beautiful person?

ENGLISH: Yeah. [Laughs.] Yeah. Yeah.

RICHMAN: What did it do?

ENGLISH: Nothing, absolutely nothing. It did nothing for my culinary profession.

TRAVERSO: What about appearing in ads, like the Michelob print ad you’ve done? Is there a problem with that?

ENGLISH: They sponsored my television show. So that helped. And you know, at the time I thought it was interesting, because if you look behind the skirt of Budweiser, they really are about being a pure, quality-driven company. So I believe in that. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to be promoting saccharine. I wouldn’t be—I don’t think that’s good for our society. Even though I like a Diet Coke every once in a while, and I grew up in Atlanta, so I’m a Coca-Cola guy. …But you’ve got to be careful because you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is and practice what you preach, for the most part.

Selling out is the antithesis of that, right? I mean, I’m not going to do a Dunkin’ Donuts ad no matter how much they pay.

RICHMAN: I don’t think he’s eaten…I don’t think you realize how bad some of these chain restaurants are.

ENGLISH: We went to one in Tampa called Quaker Steak & Lube. It was literally the Quaker State. I’m not knocking every chain, because there’s a lot of chains that put a lot of resources and effort behind it. Houston’s is a good chain.

RICHMAN: Houston’s is a good chain. They do a good job.

ENGLISH: It’s more the ones that are taking us down on the culinary scene. It’s upsetting because it just doesn’t matter. They’re poisoning America and they don’t care. That’s what bothers me. It’s as bad as—I don’t know—having a nuclear plant. It’s that same idea that people are able to get away with it. And people actually support it. And you don’t understand why they’re kicking their bellies around.

RICHMAN: Isn’t it terrible that he’s turning out to be idealistic?

ENGLISH: It’s my older age. I’m almost 50, Alan.

TRAVERSO: What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

ENGLISH: I’d probably be back to one place that will be my hangout. My office. Some of it will be philanthropic from the standpoint of education. Some of it will be very capitalistic in its ambition. Because I want to do things that are grand and product-driven, but in a healthy way, i.e., Green Pan [his cookware line for HSN]. Not necessarily where I’m grinding it out in a restaurant. Or in this world where I travel every day.

I’ll always have a base in Boston. I still have my four season tickets to Fenway.

RICHMAN: Do you have good seats?

ENGLISH: Oh man, I got great seats. Eighth row. I had one of the sons of the former owner work for me, so they gave me…literally, here’s home plate, there’s third base, I’m right here, eight rows back.

RICHMAN: I tell you something, Fenway Park, to me, as an old sportswriter, is totally overrated unless you have good seats. And then it’s the greatest ballpark in the world. If you sit in good seats, there’s nothing like it. There’s nothing better than great seats at Fenway Park.

ENGLISH: There’s an energy in the air. You know, the old Garden had that effect. The old Celtics games with Larry Bird. [Voice gets crackly.] Johnny Most. Larry in the corner, pass to DJ, He scoooores! Oh my God, there was nothing better than that. And I used to work in the kitchen and we’d have the radio on and listen to the games.

RICHMAN: The old Garden had, I studied this—the best hot dogs you could get in a ballpark or stadium anywhere were in the press lounge of the old Garden, because they used kosher hot dogs and they had them on a real grill, and they were nice and crispy. I doubt if they were natural casing. But they were great.

TRAVERSO [to English]: What doesn’t the food media understand? What is it that critics don’t get that frustrates you?

ENGLISH: I’m in the business because, yes, there’s decent money in it, but the purpose of what we do and the idea is making it better. I would not have gotten into this business the way I did if I felt different. I would’ve gone to business school, I would’ve done something else. What still excites me is the most perfectly right tomato in August, perfectly ripe corn from Little Compton in Rhode Island. Nothing better.

RICHMAN: I enjoyed this.

ENGLISH: That was fun. I really wish we had this therapy a long time ago. [Laughs.]

RICHMAN: I learned something out of this. I did. It’s funny. I thought he’d just learn something because I knew everything.