Flavortown's Minister of Mangoes

Dear Guy Fieri, I respectfully submit this as my application to your Flavortown Cabinet.

I wonder how much simultaneous joy/sorrow the mind can handle before overloading? In the checks and balances of life, where the closing of one door foretells the opening of another, how many doors can be slammed shut and banged open before your brain shuts down? Now, what if all those slams and bangs occur in the span of, say, eight weeks?

How does that affect the rate of mind melt?

I’m asking for me.

This week’s newsletter is filled with a lot of good news (like, Guy Fieri/Mayor of Flavortown-level good) — just not where my mom and her long-term health are concerned. There, the news is, at best, sideways. My mom is back home, but her dementia is steadily worsening. She does not want to live with anyone, nor does she want to live on her own. She is a (barely) walking Catch 22. When she is at my house, she complains she wants to be in her own house. When she is in her house, she complains she wants to be somewhere, anywhere else.

This is the VERY short version of the story, because I would much rather get to the good news, the news that makes my brain feel less queso-dippy. The long version involves the surprising heft of a full adult diaper, installing a shower chair, and figuring out meals that can be eaten with one hand. It involves pills, injections, the many consistencies of post-surgical feces, and the many crevices into which it can travel.

But really. Let’s get to the good news, because life keeps on surprising me, in so many delicious ways.

Mangoes and the Mayor of Flavortown

Remember February 2023? Me neither. But back then I posted about a “still-secret project” I worked on with the inimitable Guy Fieri. Yes, THAT GUY, for there could only ever be one. In that post, I told you about his shockingly elegant handwriting and exactly how hands-on he was with this then-secret project (it’s actually a very good newsletter, in case you missed it).

Fast forward 15 months, through a writers’ strike and an actors’ strike, and that project is finally no longer a secret.

That’s me next to chefs Josh Capon and Rashad Jones, with The Mayor himself.

TONIGHT (Friday, May 31 at 9 p.m. ET), I will be a judge on Guy’s newest show “Best Bite in Town.” You can watch on Food Network or stream any time after tonight on Max, formerly (but forever in my heart) HBO/HBO Max.

My BBIT episode took place in Port St. Lucie over on the east coast. The show is kind of like “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” meets “Chopped.” Guy sends teams of celebrity chefs to towns across the country to visit restaurants and find the best dishes. These chefs pick their favorites, then pit their picks against each other for a panel of local judges — hey that’s me! — who then choose the “Best Bite in Town.”

This, by some remarkable feat, is my second time judging a Food Network show. In April 2022, I got to eat alongside Chef Geoffrey Zakarian and his business partner/wife, Margaret, for their show “Big Restaurant Bet.” Despite a full day of shooting at the Luminary Hotel in downtown Fort Myers, my “part” came down to a few words and some awkward chewing. So I’m as interested as anyone to see what happens tonight with Guy.

We actually shot this episode back in January 2023 and, for a long time, I wondered if I’d made the whole thing up. Not all shows become shows, and not all judges get air time. But this project feels different. When Guy Fieri is re-folding your napkin and adjusting the angle of your plate, life in general feels different. Flavortown is a mysterious place that works in mysterious ways. I’m thrilled to play any kind of part in it — perhaps The Mayor needs a Minister of Mangoes?

If you’d like to read more about my “Best Bite in Town” experience, my former colleague Charles Runnells wrote this great piece in The News-Press.

In book news

Praise for “The Mango Tree” keeps pouring in, and I remain floored and forever grateful.

• The Washington Post, which chose “The Mango Tree” as one of its “10 Noteworthy Books for April,” recently named my book one of “28 books to read this summer” alongside works from some mind-baffling authors: Tana French!, Hanif Abdurraqib!!, PERCIVAL EVERETT!!! Someone at The WaPo loves mangoes, and for that, I love them.

• Over at Southern Living, Lisa Cericola chose TMT as “Your 2024 Summer Beach Read.” In her warmly glowing review, she called the book “as juicy as the tropical fruit itself … the kind of captivating read that can pull you in for hours.” Just be sure to reapply sunscreen.

• SAVE THE DATE for June 12. That evening, the Alliance for the Arts is moving its monthly Night Market indoors and giving it an all-mango theme. And they’ve invited me to take part. I’ll be doing a book talk with Jovana Batkovic, the brilliant mind behind Nice Guys Pizza, followed by a book signing with Blinking Owl Books. If you’ve been waiting to buy a signed copy, this is your opportunity! If you have a copy you’d like signed, bring it with you! There will also be food trucks, mango cocktails, mango desserts. You can also buy mangoes, for it is mango season (!!!), as well as *actual* mango trees. It’s going to be so sweet.