"He was an advocate for maximimalist food. He loved meat, and he saw great meat-cookery as the ultimate expression of culinary culture," said John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and noted food writer who attended Monday's Beard awards. "There was an absurdist taint to it, but there was a genuine celebration in his work, and through the work at his event Meatopia, he found a mechanism to tell his story. And he told it really well. He was a really good writer. He bared his soul through writing about food and set a standard for that sort of writing. Everything he did was overwrought and purposefully so. He didn't apologize for that. He wore his emotion and love of food on his sleeve."