STOCKHOLM—A restaurateur has no business leading tours through the frozen tundra of Scandinavia. Then again, a restaurateur has no business leading tours through Tuscany, either, and that was over 70 trips and 1,500 people ago.
The 2026 Yonderlust Travel season officially kicked off this week, and for the first time in almost 10 years of doing this, we’re starting in the land of the midnight sun instead of the rolling hills of central Italy. This is the trip I’ve been wanting to host since the beginning— a bucket-list run through Sweden, Denmark, and Norway that ends north of Tromsø, roughly 217 miles above the Arctic Circle. A perfectly logical destination for a man who has spent 45 years sweating in the commercial kitchens and dining rooms of south Mississippi. If the skies cooperate, we'll witness the aurora borealis in one of the few places on earth dark enough and far enough north to see it at full power.
That’s the plan, anyway. The northern lights don’t punch a clock.
From here I’ll head down to Tuscany for three groups, then on to Portugal to close out the spring season. This fall brings 25 guests to Greece, a return trip to Rome, the Amalfi Coast, and Naples—the fourth time I’ve hosted that tour—and three more Tuscany groups to wrap up the year. Ten trips total. Six of them in Tuscany. Three in the spring and three in the fall, because that part of Italy never gets old. Not to me. Not to the people who go.
By the end of this year, those numbers will reach 80 trips and around 1,700 guests since I started.
None of this was the plan.
My profession is restaurants. Has been since I was 19 years old. All I ever wanted at the beginning was to own one restaurant so I could wear T-shirts and shorts every day. One restaurant. No more. This, it turns out, is not a viable business strategy. One became two, and two became five, and five became seven, and before I knew it, we were running a multiunit operation with the mindset—and the infrastructure—of a mom-and-pop, one-store shop.
About four years ago we started making real changes. We a C-suite—Jarred Patterson as chief operations officer, Chad Carmichael as chief information officer, Nevil Barr as chief culinary officer, and Maria Keyes as chief financial officer—brought in executive coaches, reworked our entire financial structure, added systems throughout, and started treating the business the way I should have a couple of decades earlier. Today at 64, I am more engaged in our restaurants than I have been at any point in 38 years of ownership. More engaged, truthfully, than I ever was. Covid rattled us. The years before it weren’t my best, either. But we came through that and built something stronger on the other side.
The leadership team we have today is the best we’ve ever had. Not just in the executive offices but in every restaurant. And the bench—the people ready to step in and lead as we grow—is deeper than it’s ever been. Four years ago, we committed resources to building that bench, knowing we’d run a little top-heavy for a while. The payoff is a team that’s ready. My son will be joining us soon, which makes all this feel like it’s coming full circle in ways I didn’t expect.
Restaurants are my first love. If I’ve learned anything over 45 years in this business, it’s that you take care of your first love first and foremost.
The travel business grew up alongside the restaurants almost by accident. Back in 2011, my family and I took a six-month trip through Europe. When we came home, people started asking me to take them over there—show them the people, the places, the food I’d found. I figured I’d do it once. Take a few friends to Tuscany, eat some pasta, see some sights, come home, and go back to running restaurants like a normal person. That one trip turned into a full-scale business we now call Yonderlust Travel.
For years, Simeon Williford—my former executive assistant who also runs the publishing company—handled the travel side as part of her other duties. But we’ve reached the point where that’s not enough. I hired Brittany Nicholson as the operations director for Yonderlust Travel, because if the business is going to grow, it has to be able to operate without me on the ground for every tour.
Over the past two years the requests have expanded. People want to travel in the winter to warmer climates and in the summer to cooler ones. This past year alone I hosted tours in England, Scotland, northern Italy, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Tuscany. The relationships I’ve built with people overseas—colleagues who have become genuine friends—will allow us to offer curated tours and experiences I’ve created, run by people I trust, even when I’m not there.
At the center of almost every tour outside of Tuscany is Jesse Marinus. Jesse is Dutch, lives in Rome, and has been my boots-on-the-ground partner for seven years now. He handles the logistics, co-hosts tours with me, and works with a professionalism and eye for detail that I haven't seen often in 45 years of the hospitality business. He's like a son, a friend, a brother, and a teammate all in one person—and I don't say that about many people. The fact that every woman on every tour thinks he looks like he stepped off the cover of a European travel magazine is, I'm told, purely coincidental to our repeat-booking rate.
I’ll still host five tours in the spring and five in the fall. But the only way to scale this thing is to do it without me being at every activity and at every dinner table.
We’re also getting ready to announce something I’ve been asked about for a long time—deep-dive tours right here at home. Yonderlust Mississippi. And a New Orleans tour. Because the best food and hospitality in America has always been in our own backyard.
Here’s what connects all of it—the restaurants, the travel, the tours at home and overseas. Hospitality. That one word. Creating an experience for someone, whether it’s a Tuesday night dinner at the Crescent City Grill or a week chasing the northern lights above the Arctic Circle. Making people feel taken care of. Making them feel like they matter. That’s the job. Always has been.
We are, after all, the Hospitality State. Though I'm fairly certain the tourism board didn't have fjords in mind when they put that on the license plate.
What I didn’t see coming—what nobody could have predicted when I started leading a handful of friends through the Tuscan countryside—is that the people I meet at the restaurants become friends and then guests on the tours. And the people I meet on the tours become friends. Real friends. Lasting ones. Over 38 years, people have trusted us with their dining experiences. Over the past decade, 1,500 of them have trusted me with their vacation time. That’s not something I take lightly. Not for one second.
A restaurateur has no business leading tours through Scandinavia. But hospitality is hospitality, whether the table is set in Hattiesburg or on a fjord in northern Norway. The table just keeps getting bigger. And for that, I am grateful.
Onward.
Orange Crepes with Sugared Cranberries
I prefer fruit over chocolate after a meal. Orange and cranberries are a perfect pairing, especially during the holidays. This is an excellent and easy dessert after a heavy meal. These can be served individually on small plates or in a casserole for a buffet.
Serves 6 to 8
Sugared Cranberries
1/2 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons orange extract
11/2 cups fresh cranberries
Sauce for Crepes
1/2 cup Grand Marnier
1/2 cup orange juice, fresh is best
1/2 cup granulated sugar
11/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Crepes
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
11/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs plus 1 yolk
3 cups whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
Crepe Filling
11/2 pounds cream cheese, softened
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
11/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Non-stick spray
For the cranberries, combine one half cup water with one cup of sugar in a small saucepot or skillet. Cook over high heat and allow the mixture to boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and stir in two teaspoons of orange extract. Allow the syrup to cool to room temperature. Stir in the cranberries, ensuring that they are evenly coated with the syrup. Place a cooling rack over a baking sheet. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cranberries from the syrup and place them on the cooling rack. Allow them to dry for one hour.
Place the remaining one cup of sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Place the cranberries in the sugar and toss until the cranberries are evenly coated with sugar, Once again, place the sugared cranberries on a cooling rack and let them dry for one hour.
These can be made 24 hours in advance and held in an airtight container.
To make the sauce, place the Grand Marnier in a one-quart sauce pot over high heat (stand back a bit as the Grand Marnier will create flames) Once the flames have burned off, add the orange juice and sugar, Boil for four to five minutes. Add the whipping cream and reduce by half. Stir in the orange zest and salt. Hold in a warm place until ready to serve.
For the crepes combine the flour, one and a half teaspoons of sugar, and half teaspoon of kosher salt in medium-sized mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolk, milk, and three tablespoons of melted butter. Whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir well for one minute. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Heat a six-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat. Brush with a small amount of the melted butter. Ladle two ounces of batter into the prepared skillet. Swirl the batter so it evenly coats the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the batter is almost completely dry, flip and cook for 1 more minute. Place the prepared crepes on parchment paper and continue the process until all the batter has been used.
Preheat oven to 350° F
Filling
Beat the softened cream cheese until smooth. Add the egg and sugar and continue beating until smooth. Add the orange zest, orange juice, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. Beat until well mixed.
Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with non-stick spray.
If you have a pastry bag, fill it with the cream cheese mixture, if not, you can spoon the filling into the crepes. Down the center of the crepe, place three tablespoons of filling, leaving about a half inch at each end of the crepes. Fold in the ends first, then the sides.
Place the filled crepes in the baking dish, seam-side down. Cover with foil and bake for 10 minutes.
To serve, place the warm crepes on a serving platter, top with the sauce and sprinkle with the sugared cranberries.
