I knew him when…
My barbecue teammate Neil Strawder, aka BigMista, is a TV spokesperson for Fresh & Easy, the grocery store chain owned by the British Tesco conglomerate.
What’s Fresh & Easy? It’s sort of a convenience store supersized into a supermarket, with a focus on low prices. It’s for someone who wants to cook their own meals, with minimal hassle. Think blister packed fresh meats, many ready-flavored, in family sized portions to make dinner prep fast and easy.
Fresh & Easy hired Neil because he’s got a reputation as Los Angeles’ best BBQ cook among many Chowhounds, Yelpers and the general public, which voted for our team as People’s Choice champion in numerous BBQ contests. Well that, and his natural telegenic personality.
This Fourth of July, he’s been making the rounds on TV morning shows in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego. Here’s BigMista on Fox5 in Vegas. On other shows, he gives BBQ cookout tips to make your Fourth Fresh & Easy. I can’t work in that phrase into this post any more times, people.
He’s a natural! Watch for Neil and family in an upcoming episode of Over Your Head on HGTV, too. Get this man an agent, quick!
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Way to go Neil!!!
July 18th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
With all due respect to Mr. Mista, your description of Fresh & Easy is by far the best and most spot-on I’ve read. Despite the sneers of gourmet chefs (and union-sympathizers), I admire Fresh & Easy for the risks they take and for being somewhat innovative. (Yes, they copied a lot from Trader Joe’s, like the food sampling bar, but they were also courageous enough to introduce several tasty, heat-and-eat, refrigerated and frozen Indian platters that no one this side of Brookhurst Street ever even heard of.) I will still die bleeding Trader Joe’s tropical paisley, but Fresh & Easy actually outdoes TJ’s in boxed salads, refrigerated soups, and shrink-wrapped burritos, to name three things. F&E definitely deserves to be on any foodie’s regular shopping circuit.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
We need Prof. Salt representin’ some cash flush corp!!