Roger Mooking couldn’t stop talking up LaPlace and the greater New Orleans area as a whole when we spoke last week, and his enthusiasm hasn’t been far from my mind since.

The nationally-known chef and host of the Cooking Channel’s Man Fire Food was in town recently to film scenes at Wayne Jacob’s Smokehouse and Restaurant for one of the show’s episodes.

The show broadcast this week and will certainly run again in re-runs and on the Internet, but what stands out to me wasn’t Mooking’s love of the food his show highlights but the region he visited — the one we are lucky enough to call home.

“I love your section of the world,” Mooking said before our interview ended. “It’s a beautiful place. Don’t take it for granted.”

I used to take South Louisiana for granted.

My parents are divorced. We moved around a fair share of times when I was younger, so between stays with my mom and dad, I attended two grammar schools and three high schools.

I lived in New Orleans, Metairie, Covington, Bush and Slidell all before my senior year of high school.

By the time college started at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, I had a healthy appreciation for this region but a familiarity with moving around.

With a degree in journalism courtesy of Tech, my first job called for work in Texas, which was followed by stops in Louisiana, North Carolina and Mississippi before coming back home to work at L’Observateur May 1.

Having been back for close to two months now, it’s only now that I realize what was sacrificed in spending the last 16 years away from this region.

The people, the food, the accents, the weather, I didn’t know how much they were all natural to me.

My wife and I are looking for a permanent River Parishes home that works best for our two children, and the hunt is proving to be an adventure. There are so many wonderful communities and people here that I find myself acting like a tourist at the very same time feeling like I’m finally home.

It’s a sense of excitement that Mooking was only to eager to share when asked about his visit to St. John the Baptist Parish and beyond.

“I really love the region around New Orleans,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite places in America. There is so much character. You come to that region and you feel like you are traveling to a different place.

“You go to Louisiana, down by New Orleans, and you feel like you are on a different planet. The topography changes, the accents change dramatically. The sensibilities of the people change. I really love that.”

Mooking said he had a ball here just learning how to make andouille and poboys, adding an awesome compliment to the region and specifically to the staff at Wayne Jacob’s Smokehouse that didn’t even make Tuesday’s broadcast premiere.

“They make a gumbo in that place that is crazy,” he said. “It’s the best gumbo I have had ever in my life.”

In 15 minutes of talking to Mooking, I could tell he loved what he did for a living and truly loved our little neck of the woods — South Louisiana.

I feel the same way. I was born and raised here by parents who were born and raised here. After spending my young adult life in other parts of the country, I couldn’t be happier to be back home so my 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter can experience the River Parishes, along with their parents.

It’s good to be home, something that took me reaching my 30s to finally realize.

Stephen Hemelt is editor and general manager of L’Observateur. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.