Chef Jay Ducote!
Ben: “I think it’s clearing up!” The eternal optimist, he begins every day this way, declaring the virus to be over. We tell him it’s not, and he replies with, “Almost over. Soon.” In keeping with Ben’s anticipation of this whole mess clearing up, we have decided to set our sights on brighter days ahead, namely hosting our celebrity chef, Jay Ducote. We have been assured that even though it must be delayed, Chef Jay Ducote will, at some point, appear in our kitchen to cook with Chef Ben! Check out his incredible background below!
“How did this happen?” you might ask. How are we getting this kind of star power? We and Jay share a mutual friend, Caroline Payne, who teaches at Lycoming College, here in Williamsport. If you watch Jay’s Ted X Talk, you will understand their friendship and collaboration. Caroline spearheads a project that partners with a community in the Dominican Republic to support coffee growers, while helping Lycoming College students understand and contribute to developing communities. She will be giving her own TedX Talk in Williamsport, and Jay will be here for that. When he is in town, whenever that may be, he will be cooking with Ben.
We first met Jay in the fall, when he was in town to produce a huge dinner for Lycoming College’s donors. Caroline introduced us at a tailgate event, and Ben and Jay talked about food. Ben told Jay about how much he loves Bahn mi sandwiches, and a connection was made.
It wasn’t until much later that Caroline suggested that Jay make a guest appearance on Ben’s Day Wednesday. I know what a big deal it is. For heaven’s sake, he beat Bobby Flay! Ben just thinks he is going to be cooking with a really nice guy who likes food as much as he does. Rest assured, we will keep you updated.
We are also announcing a world food tour with Chef Ben, starting tomorrow. We’ll be hitting a different country every day this week.
We’ve also been hitting dominoes pretty hard this week, but today we mixed it up with an old school game of Yahtzee.
