Quick-Fire Quips is a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama! In this episode, Alabama Public Radio host Baillee Majors talks with Chef Pete Blohme, also known as "Panini" Pete.
He owns several restaurants under the PP-Hospitality Group, which includes businesses like:
—Panini Pete's Cafe & Bakeshoppe
—Sunset Pointe
—Squid Ink – Eclectic Eats & Drinks
—The Waterfront
—Parc Le Tralour
—Mob Town Proper
Pete has also been featured with Guy Fieri on his Live Road Show and served as a host of several Food Network shows such as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy’s Grocery Games, Guy’s Big Bite and The Great Food Truck Race with Tyler Florence on Food Network as well as CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama.
Baillee: Hey, Pete!
Pete: How are you, Baillee?
Baillee: I'm good! Happy to have you on, Mr. Panini Pete himself.
Pete: Not near as happy as I am to be on!
Baillee: You've kind of been all over the map when it comes to, you know, TV and food and culinary world and stuff like that.
Pete: Guy really opened the door for all of that... I got a cold call from the network, and I was pretty sure it was somebody pranking me, but it wasn't. So, we worked it out, and ended up this whole long day of shooting (for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives), and Guy and I just hit it off.
It was unbelievably game changing for me. Not only that exposure, but the relationship and the friendship that grew from that.
Baillee: That's awesome! Well, now the introductions are done. Let's go ahead and get you warmed up to answer the questionnaire. To do that, I want you to say Quick-Fire Quips three times fast.
Pete: Quick Fire quips. (pause) Oh, I have to say it three times?
(Pete and Baillee laugh)
Baillee: Yes!
(Pete and Baillee laugh harder)
Pete: Ok, ready? Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips. How was that?
Baillee: Very good (laughs). Okay, first question. What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear Alabama?
Pete: I mean, the obvious for me is Roll Tide. I lived eight years in Tuscaloosa. [I] was the chef up there.
But really, to me, when I talk to my friends about, "how did you handle moving from South Florida to here?" It's the people, it's the Southern hospitality, without a doubt. The culture and the people here are really cool and very welcoming.
Baillee: So, what is a bad stereotype or something that people get wrong about Alabama?
Pete: Dumb rednecks and. There's no culture and it's backwards... I was born in Chicago. I grew up in south Florida. I went to school in New York, you know, worked on a cruise ship and traveled the Caribbean. I've traveled the world since then. And I really, really love Alabama.
Sometimes you think, "Okay, I'm going to Alabama. I gotta set my watch back 10 years." You know, it's a slow pace in some ways. But I think people get it very wrong. Most people that come down here, and especially see the state, from northeast, you get Huntsville, the tech up there, plus the mountains. All the all the beautiful geography that's in the delta down here, and it's biodiversity. The beach, the coast, the fishing. It has so much to offer.
Baillee: Are there any Southern phrases that you catch yourself using way too much?
Pete: You know, the vernacular kind of does penetrate. I remember talking to friends after four or five years in Alabama. They said, "You sound like a hillbilly." I'm like, "I know hillbillies. I don't sound like them."
(Pete and Baillee laugh)
But sometimes, I'm fixin' to go places, Sometimes I want to holler at somebody. Sometimes, I tell them to cut on the the lights. So, you know, I never was fixin' to go anywhere. I never was a hollering anybody, and I never was cutting on lights... But I do it all the time now.
(Pete and Baillee laugh)
Baillee: Ah, I love that. So, let's talk Southern food. What is your go to dish to bring to a potluck?
Pete: I don't do a lot of potlucks, but I'm usually the dessert guy. That's been with me for a long time. You know, something like some killer cheesecakes.
But if I had to do more of a Southern dish, a pecan pie for real, with a shot of espresso in it. Oh, my God, love it... Collard greens. I love to eat a lot roasted corn. Mac-and-cheese is a big one too.
Baillee: What is something you wish that more people would know about the local culinary community?
Pete: It's slowly getting out that we have one. It's changed so much in the last 20 years. It's improved. It's grown. When I first opened, there was a lot of people going, "Oh, my God, you're gonna put goat cheese, boursin on a on a panini?" And it seemed like crazy to some people. But we've got James Beard dominated chefs down here now doing a lot of really good things... Chef Bill Briand just opened up a new place here (little bird).
Even in Mobile, our little area, I just like to say that it's a tight-knit community. Everybody's competitive to a degree, but there's a lot of people that collaborate and work together, and we help each other out.
Baillee: That's awesome! Now, what is something that you wish people understood more about running a local business?
Pete: Be patient. Make sure you have enough money invested. Don't try to run too fast, and support the community... If you can help to try to make your community a little bit better, I think it becomes contagious. It just comes back to you.
Baillee: Next question. Do you have any superstitions or irrational fears?
Pete: I'm not real superstitious, but one thing I tell you, what I always do. I never get on a plane without once [doing this]. Just as I'm walking through that doorway, I reach over on the hall and I rub it, and I tap it, and I say good things. Give it good energy. And I'm like, "Get me to where I need to go." And it's weird, it's funny, and I don't even think about it. It's like almost subconscious.
Baillee: Ah, I see. I think that's more of like a little quirk! So, what is something on your bucket list?
Pete: I need to take my wife to Europe, and we need to go to Italy. I love architecture and history. I'd love to go to Rome. That would be a real big one [and] to get to a point where I can have a little more freedom in my schedule. I've been fortunate to see a lot of places, but there's so many more I haven't seen.
Other things... I hope to see grandkids one day. I've got a couple books and a couple scripts that I need to get off my butt and write.
Baillee: Who was your childhood hero?
Pete: Like a lot of kids, it Speed Racer.
Baillee: Yeah, The Mach Five!
Pete: Yes, the power of The Mach Five! I always loved racing home from school to watch the cartoons... And then as I got a little bit older and playing sports, it was
Bob Griese and some of the Miami Dolphins. Larry Csonka is big sports hero, for sure.
Baillee: Next question, What is a hidden gem along the Alabama, Gulf Coast that more people should know about?
Pete: You know, our beaches are so obvious. the Gulf Coast beaches are phenomenal... The first time I went to Orange Beach after growing up in Fort Lauderdale, you know, fishing, scuba diving, surfing... my jaw dropped. There's still a lot of people that don't realize we have a Gulf Coast... [and] Fairhope is this great little jewel, even though we're up on the on the bay. I could talk all day about Fairhope.
Baillee: Do you happen to have a favorite getaway spot in Alabama?
Pete: I don't do it often enough, but I would still say the beach. Off season in October and get a condo. My wife and I go down there for a couple days, walk out on that balcony and look at the Gulf.. It's so powerful. It's so healing. Just everything decompresses... and sneaking out for a Piña Colada or some touristy thing makes me happy.
Baillee: Here is our last question. What does Alabama need?
Pete: We just needed to continue to grow our culinary diversity. When you travel to these big old cities, and they have not just the Jewish delis and the Italian bakeries, but now there's so much. There's Turkish restaurants and Indian restaurants and Latin restaurants.
We still have a lot of opportunity there in Alabama, and I hope that continues to grow and improve. Especially you get down here at the beach. They want grits, greens, Gumbo and crab claws. And when I opened Sunset Pointe, I was the anti-grits, greens and gumbo. It was snapper throats and kale and couscous and bouillabaisse instead of gumbo. So, we need that diversity in our food, and hopefully it'll just keep coming.
Baillee: That's it for today's Quick-Fire Quips, a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama. That was Chef Pete Blohme, also known as "Panini" Pete!
Keep up with with him on social media and online!
—Website: chefpaninipete.com
—Facebook: Panini Pete
—Instagram: @chefpaninipete
—Philanthropy: PR Foundation
—Nonprofit: The Messlords
—Book: Spatula Success
Don't forget to check out Alabama Public Radio on Facebook and Instagram for more Quick-Fire Quips. Local support for the show is provided by JMF Technologies.
