Page 143 - Abilene Living

He continued describing the events of that day. “I looked down and we were right across from the Washington Post and people were walking out...they weren't panicked, but they were all going in the same direction, out of town...Humvees with soldiers were at every intersection. Secret Service Agents lined the streets with machine guns. All phone lines were down including cell phones. When I was fnally able to, I called back to Abilene and told my mother we were okay. I gave a radio interview that day...Me, Mr. Macho...and as I listened to it later, realized my voice was crackling through the whole interview.”

BACKGROUND

Tom Perini started cooking by the age of 14 out of a chuck wagon on his father's ranch for cowboys as they worked. “That is where I really learned to cook,” Tom said proudly. After his father's death in 1965, he moved out to the family ranch to raise cattle, but was having a diffcult time making a living at it. “It's a great lifestyle, but a hard way to make a living,” Tom explains. While discussing this fact with his friend,What Matthews, he joked with Tom and told him, “you could do more for the beef industry by cooking it than raising it.” Not long after that conversation, Tom started catering events and soon opened Perini's Steak House in 1983. What Matthews wasn't kidding; his suggestion led Tom down a path no one, especially Tom, could have imagined. Not only has he cooked for the President of the United States, but also for President Putin of Russia and President Jiang Zemin of China. He has become quite famous in the culinary world for his cowboy cuisine. Not only has he won awards for his steaks and hamburgers but he has come to personify the old western cowboy that many thought had died out. He has been in numerous magazine articles, on popular television shows and won many awards. He currently travels the world teaching his “cowboy cuisine.” His accolades continue to accumulate , remarkably, all with no formal culinary training.

CONNECTIONS

How does a former cattle rancher, turned caterer and restaurant owner, from Buffalo Gap, Texas with no formal culinary training end up cooking at the White House? It started with a phone call from the Texas Governor's Mansion, inquiring about catering a cookout after the Texas-Virginia football game in October 1995. Tom, not so sure his was the type of food they were looking for, said, “ I’m going to be in Austin to cook for the Texas Restaurant Association (TRA), why don't you send over your decision-maker for a taste?” At that TRA conference in Austin, he was on the foor, elbows deep mixing a salad, when he heard a voice call 'Tom Perini?' He was shocked to see Laura Bush. “Oh ma'am, I didn't think they would send you.” She said, “Well, you asked for the decision maker, didn’t you?” Tom laughed, “Well, yes ma'am, I did.” It turned out she loved his cooking. (We aren't surprised). That event was the frst of many to come that he catered for the