You know the one: sliding up to the bar at 9:45 p.m., ready to order with 15 minutes left before the kitchen closes.

Yet like clockwork, the culinary consultant would land beneath the sparkling crystal horse chandelier at Frisco's Trick Rider three nights a week, a half dozen oysters and gin-and-soda waiting in front of him.

"I would get off of work later at night, and I was obsessed with oysters, just a taste of the ocean," the Los Angeles native says before laughing.