Tupper Lake, November 6, 2012 by Jeff Boucher

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Tyler Florence in Okinawa.

My son-in-law Russ, who's a LTJG  in the Navy is currently stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Tyler Florence came to their base and cooked dinner. 

Russ is a foodie and sent these pics and a description of the meal to my daughter, who fwded. them to me.

I gotta say I'm impressed.


 The Promo Flyer.


Mahi mahi......

It's all in the Prep.

 Looks good!

Here's Russ's description of the meal.

He cooked up 5 courses for dinnner.  First one was some foccacia bread
with an olive spread (like olive brushetta) and a white bean spread
(kind of like humus).  The second course was a roasted tomatoe soup.  He
had roasted tomatoes with a puree of squash or something in the bowl and
then the servers came around and poured a squash broth/puree over the
entire thing.  It was delicious.  The tomatoes made it sweet and the
squash and spices made it savory.  The third course was tuna with pieces
of grapefruit and a ricotta fritter.  It was a fun dish because when you
mixed and matched you could get different textures and flavors.  Raw
tuna with the ricotta fritter was smooth and crunchy and the tuna and
grapefruit was smooth but because it was citrus you would get a little
burst of citrus with every chew.  The fourth course was mahi-mahi over
roasted zucchini and red peppers (it might have been tomatoes though).
This was really good because he gave it an asian flair.  It looked like
a piece of fish with the skin still on it, but the skin turned out to be
a piece of seaweed paper (like the stuff they use for sushi).  Gave it a
good flavor and it was a very savory dish.  The final course was an
espresso bean mouse or jello...not really sure what it was.  It was
definitely in a gelatin form though, but very smooth and sweet.  He
topped it with crushed biscotti and a homemade whip cream with a fresh
mint leaf.  Very delicious.

Throughout the entire meal we could see him putting together the dishes.
He had help, but the flavors and dishes were definitely his creation.
And that one picture that I got with him is me giving him an NMCB 1
coin.  Kind of a tradition to show your appreciation for something that
was well done.  Between the third and fourth courses I had to run up to
my room to grab it.  I told the XO that it would only take me 5 mins and
I made it back in 5mins 30 secs...I was sweating, but not too bad.  When
I gave him the coin it was a little awkward because he was just standing
there appreciating his hard work and I really didn't want to bother him,
but a buddy of mine got his attention and said "Hey Tyler, my buddy over
here is a big fan and wanted to give you something"  and that's when I
popped in and said "on behalf of nmcb 1 we just wanted to thank you for
this awesome meal with this coin"  and he accepted it and said thank
you.  Figured if he was wearing a Navy ball cap, he would appreciate the
coin too, and I think he did.  
V/R,
LTJG Russ Jarvis
Material Liaison Officer
Naval Mobile Construction Battalion ONE, "The First and The Finest"


Great story Russ!  Below is a pic of Russ presenting Tyler with the NMCB 1 coin. 
 Very cool.
Tyler, Thanks for serving Russ & Co. and Russ, Thanks for serving your country!
A couple of other pics-

Russ and Co.

and.......

Russ standing in a place I never would!  
But the beach looks nice.....

3 comments:

  1. I must say I'm impressed with Tyler. I don't watch TV but I certainly know who he is and appreciate what he did. Pictures are gorgeous (including your son).

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  2. Oh man, that is so cool! I had a friend in the Marines that was in Okinawa for a spell and did a lot of surfing but didn't get a Tyler Florence meal. I'm so glad that Tyler did that for the Navy boys--makes me like him even more.

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  3. I shouldn't have said "had" like he's dead now! He's still alive, still a friend, just not in the Marines any more. :)

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