Long-time Tom Fitzmorris food show caller, Clark the gourmet truck driver has died

RIP Clark. Easily my favorite caller for that show.

*Not hard to beat out Chef Andrea

Tom’s daily newsletter. He also spoke about it briefly on his show yesterday. I’m sure he’ll talk about it today too.

quote:

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Tom’s daily newsletter. He also spoke about it briefly on his show yesterday. I’m sure he’ll talk about it today too.

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I get his newsletter too. Here is the content:

Five-Star Edition Today

The Gourmet Truck Driver.

Yesterday, May 10, 2018, Clark Marter-the proud grand-nephew of famous jazz trumpeter Harry James-died on his way to the hospital. He was a few years younger than I am, a fact I know because I had already celebrated my fortieth birthday when he celebrated his. I know when he turned forty because the Eat Club-an ad-hoc group of listeners to my radio show-held a birthday party for Clark at the now-extinct Doug's Steakhouse in the CBD. The high point of the party came when Chef Jean-Luc Albin presented Clark with a birthday cake. It depicted an eighteen-wheel truck in a jackknife skid. The reason this was funny was that Clark was a professional on-the-road driver working for Saia truck lines. Saia is a nationally-known trucking firm originally born in New Orleans, where everybody in this article so far lived.

I met Clark months before this birthday party. By that time, he had become a regular caller to my daily radio show called "The Food Show." He was known to me and my listeners as "Clark, the Gourmet Truck Driver." We would introduce his calls with that name and the playing of a sound-effect tape of a large truck with its horns blowing.

All this began when Clark phoned the radio show to ask if I knew any places to eat in the Kennerie area (where Kenner meets Metairie). "The truck he was driving that day had its radio tuned to The Food Show, he said. "You told the guy on the radio that a restaurant across the street from where I was made good chicken dishes. I usually just went to Burger King for lunch. Or I made a turkey sandwich at home. But the guy on the radio made me hungry. I parked the truck, went inside and asked for that chicken. It had some kind of sauce on it, and cor! that was good!.. I started going there every day!"

Clark was convinced. He kept getting that chicken dish until I pointed out that I was covering many other good restaurant dishes he could try. For months and then, Clark began checking in regularly with news about other new-to-him dishes. Soon he was a member of a group familiar to hosts of radio talk shows: the regular caller with a handle. ("Handle" is a term that comes from the truck-driver, CB-radio world.) Clark's handle through the twenty-plus years he called The Food Show was "Clark, The Gourmet Truck Driver." He became a well-defined figure on the radio show, and remained so until we lost him yesterday.

By then, Clark had long since become a sort of celebrity. At our Eat Club dinners, attendees always wanted to know whether Clark was there so they could meet him. He learned a lot about food over the years-more then he even knew.

His final act occurred on Mardi Gras 2018, when the Eat Club held its annual steak dinner after my annual broadcast from Gallier Hall on WWL Radio. Clark sat there and pontificated on the relative merits of the Crescent City Steak House's many cuts of beef. Clark ordered a double porterhouse for himself and his wife. I sat next to him and split another porterhouse with other friends at the table.

I was about to pay the check for everybody at the table when the Crescent City's co-owner and waiter Anthony Vojkovich told me that Clark had already covered the entire bill for all six people with us. He and I argued about this and insisted that we do this in a more equitable way. Clark refused and said that next Mardi Gras, it would be my turn.

Little did we know.

We will miss Clark's unique New Orleans character. And remember him whenever we hear a record of Harry James playing his trumpet. Clark was incessantly proud of his uncle. I have no doubt that Harry is giving Clark lessons in heaven. I'll never forget The Gourmet Truck Driver. Along the road, he taught me a few things about living.

NP Paul

Yeah, Tom is usually a dick to most people. Must be his pompous arrogant nature that his high school taught him to be.

Found a picture of him:

that cant be clark, can it?

i always took him for a big fat guy. He would get out of breath just talking

RIP Clark. I met him several times at Eat Club dinners and at restaurants. He was a nice guy and quite a character.

The picture I posted came from his Facebook page HERE.