Hey, swell. How's it going? Today? Marks one year since chef Carl Ruiz passed away from a heart attack. I had spent the prior year listening to Carl on the Opiety video podcast, and I found him to be a hilarious personality. But more than that, the guy seemed to have an incredibly positive outlook on life, always finding a silver lining in dark moments. He loved food, obviously being a chef the finest of foods, but also the most disgusting of foods, too
Mtwadamela Ijogo
@Mtwadamela · 1:00
But I didn't care. And eventually everybody else came around to loving him and seeing what I saw. And I never met him. I've seen him in concert one time, but when he passed, it just felt like a peace piece of my childhood left. It's just like a really big piece of my childhood left. And so, yeah, I can relate on that level right there, Joe, all the way
And he gave my family tickets to go see Heaven and H*** perform with Alice Cooper and Queensraike. And a guy that I'd never met before that had such a profound effect on my life. He really did something. He really went out of his way to make a kid happy. And I know that sort of came from a place of privilege because of the one degree of separation from my family and his. But I had never met the guy
He was a really positive guy. I got introduced to him through the Food Network as well and watched him on Guys grocery games. But Guy Fieri saw him or discovered him, I guess whatever on diners driving and dives, and he always gave credit to Guy for helping get his life turned around. And then he met his wife and they had children and then he opened his restaurants. So he and Guy's relationship was very fun to watch. They were very playful. They were very close, apparently
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 3:09
And it is kind of weird. You look back when we're young, I don't know about for you, Missy, but as guys, it wasn't exactly cool to dig his Purple Highness. It was a strange kind of look at the time, but the music and the guitar playing was rock solid. And Taylor Dio is huge. In fact, on Friday night that tribute show, I went to the headliner was this guy Steve Desko. He does Dio, and he does Ozzy equally fantastically
@SimonMajumdar · 0:30
It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Carl left us. I never got to know him as well as many people on other guy's grocery game set because I was quite new to the scene. But we met each other quite a few times him and every time he was just generous and funny and kind. And so I think he's going to be missed not just by all of us at the Food Network, but by everybody in the industry
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:18
So many people. When they had the Memorial episode on Opie's podcast, Gloria, Carl's assistant held a Memorial at Pig Island in Brooklyn. And they interviewed a bunch of people who had met Carl, and they said meeting him once you felt like you knew him forever
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 0:18
Okay, now I feel dumb. I listened to your swell. I didn't look at your profile. And now I feel stupid. Very familiar with who you are. And boy, do I feel ridiculous at the moment. So my apologies