Siege Mentality vs. The Chef

In Vancouver, we have a couple of top shelf restaurants owned and run by chef David Hawksworth (if you ever visit, they are called 'Hawksworth' and 'Nightingale'). He had a feature done this week in the local paper and it covered his extensive culinary travels.

He was asked about things that had disappointed him and top among the things that came to mind was when he was flying into Washington DC to do a special dinner as guest chef there and he was denied entry to the US because he was travelling with his set of knives....chef....knives....nah, must be a terrorist!

Bet they were wrapped in a turban, too. Very suspicious....

Reminds me of that old joke about the grandmother who was booted off a flight for bringing knitting needles on board. They were afraid she was gonna knit an Afghan.

At least I think it was a joke....

Cute, Tom

Just an aside - when having to negotiate large airports (we had to go through up to three different security checks going from one end of Charles de Gaulle to the other) it was annoying to have them use different techniques. One check just ran a wand over you and scoped hand luggage, while another one made you remove shoes and belts.

They also had varying procedures on what you could carry in hand luggage - I use fountain pens and there was always uncertainty as to whether to carry them with you. There was probably a 20% chance that some bored inspector would seize and destroy one because it contained fluid that could be explosive or poisonous. Carrying in the hold, which is unpressurised means emptying every time you fly. What a PITA!

"TSA says they are going to crack down on the invasive pat-downs. In fact, one agent was transferred to another parish." –David Letterman

"At the airport if you refuse to be patted down, they arrest you. And what’s the first thing they do when they arrest you? They pat you down." –Jay Leno

In his book Chef on Fire, Chef Carey recounts a similar run-in with airport security due to his beloved kitchen knives. And that was well before 9/11.

Before 9/11 I used to pack everything in my carry-on bags if I could. It meant that for short trips I could just walk off the plane and out the door--no waiting at baggage retrieval. Nowadays it's just the opposite. I long ago gave up trying to keep track of what is and isn't allowed in carry-on. I pack everything into checked baggage except a book to read, a book of Sudoku puzzles, and a mechanical pencil.

-Paul W.

Flying out of Tampa twice in the past few weeks I was very pleasantly surprised in being directed into the TSA 'Pre' line where I didn't have to remove clothing or anything from my bag and just walked through a metal detector which didn't bleep at coins in my pocket or belt buckle or anything...

TSA is trying to encourage more travelers to apply for its pre-screening program by randomly selecting passengers for the Pre line.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

TSA is trying to encourage more travelers to apply for its pre-screening program by randomly selecting passengers for the Pre line.

-Paul W.

Really? That's interesting. Lots of people around here with TSA pre-checks, we want less! (It was so cool when we seemed to be the only ones who had them) We have Nexus cards so it was fairly automatic that we were among the first.

Oh, yes, I randomly get TSA PRE on my flights. (Honestly, if I travelled more often than I have this past year, I'd make the company buy TSA PRE for me.)

I’ve got Global Entry (international travel) which includes TSA Pre-Check. It’s great!