Chef Otto's Blog

It’s just shy of 17 hours from DFW to the Holy City, better known as Charleston, SC. I’ve done the roundtrip drive a half dozen times. This time was different. It was one way. My dad was living in Ladson, 20 miles due west of Charleston. In the spring of 2017, he called at my home in Texas. He simply said, “I need you.” “I need you to come here and take care of me.”   Out of the five remaining siblings, which I was the furthest away, I got the call. I didn’t ask if he contacted other siblings, or why me?

I live in Ladson, SC, a small town that borders Summerville. Just about 20 clicks west of Charleston. Shortly after the Revolutionary War Charleston residents began to escape the industry of the city, the heat, seasonal insects, and swamp fever. They sought a country getaway. Plantation owners originally developed the area. There were so many pine trees it was known as Pineland Village. Eventually it was named Summerville, perhaps because it became a village of Summer dwellers. It officially became a town in 1847. That year, the town passed a law against cutting down trees of substantial size. The first of such laws in the United States. A $25 fine was issued upon anyone

Last week, on Friday the 13th I attended a fundraiser for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Not that I am superstitious, but the pandemic of the coronavirus certainly factored on my decision to attend. To be one of 500 plus guests, in the chandeliered confines of a Marriot ballroom eating from a two-sided buffet featuring yard bird and mac & cheese doubled one’s chances of becoming contaminanted. Groups of 10 and the 6-foot rule be damned I decided to attend. I was obligated, for two reasons. One, I was part of the auction that evening raising funds for LLS. I

Twenty twenty, whenever I see or hear that repetitive numerical phrase, visual acuity comes to mind. The clarity or sharpness of vision. The Snellen chart, created by Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen in 1862. The classic eye chart you see in the office of an optometrist determines what level of vision you have. The Snellen chart has 11 lines of block letters. The first line is simply one large letter, such as E, H, or N. Successive rows have increasing amounts of letters that decrease in size. Normal vision is 20/20. It simply means you can read a specific line on the chart at the distance of

I was raised in a town the size of a postage stamp. It wasn’t even a town but a township. Webster defines township “an organized subdivision of a county” Brownhelm Township is anything but unorganized. This small farming community, located 30 miles west of Cleveland and a skipping stone’s throw from the shore of Lake Erie, is one of the most organized communities in America even though you won’t find it in the Rand McNally Road Atlas.   During the Great Depression the leaders of this agricultural hamlet decided to get together and provide for everyone in the village who