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'Seinfeld' chef now has soup for youBy ERIC DEGGANS © St. Petersburg Times, published March 27, 1998 Don't get too personal. Don't talk about Seinfeld too much. And for heaven's sake, don't use the dreaded "N word." Journalists unwise enough to violate these rules get treated to the same curt dismissals that made Yeganeh ripe for a satirical skewering on Seinfeld. Just as the excitable chef is likely to cut off offending customers in his Manhattan shop with a curt "no soup for you," assorted reporters, fans and even Jerry Seinfeld himself have been cursed loudly and publicly by the chef who claims "soup is my life." Hours later, after three attempts to get him on the telephone, Yeganeh explains that the publicity from the classic Seinfeld episode -- where an actor recreated his gruff, imposing manner -- has done nothing but make his life tougher. "Now people come in all day taking my picture, cars drive by blowing the horns, people calling my name all the time . . . it distracts me," says Yeganeh, whose tiny, 153-square-foot shop, Soup Kitchen International, often draws lines 100-people-long waiting for his famous soup. "The quality of my soup is dropping, and for me, the quality is my whole life," says the chef, his words colored by a thick, Middle Eastern-sounding accent (When asked about his origins, the fortysomething cook will only admit to being a "man of the world"). "Jerry Seinfeld . . . he destroyed me with that "N word." All of which can't really explain why Yeganeh has thrust himself back into the media's eye once again, this time appearing on the Home Shopping Network today from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., hawking a new flash-frozen line of his gourmet soups. Cooked with Yeganeh's supervision, these soups mark the first time the chef has made his soup available outside his Manhattan shop, according to HSN officials. The "Soup Man" himself -- thanks to Yeganeh's aversion to the "N word," Home Shopping can't use the phrase Seinfeld fans might know best -- comes to St. Petersburg today to share his soup and some stories. Available in four, 20-ounce packages, the soup collections of turkey chili, mulligatawny, seafood corn chowder and chicken vegetable will be sold for $39.95 each. So, if the media scrutiny is so unbearable, why exactly did Yeganeh agree to the Home Shopping appearance -- with a tentative return scheduled in May, just before the May 14 Seinfeld finale? "That's a good question," admits Yeganeh, whose soups scored ahead of swanky, better-known restaurants like Le Cirque 2000 in the 1998 Zagat survey of New York area eateries. "It was the only way I could let the whole world have my soups." And even though Yeganeh seems to have a found a way to cash in on his unusual fame, the chef is nothing but positive about the development that has many TV fans in mourning: Seinfeld's last episode. "I had great success before Seinfeld, and NBC cash in and use and abuse me," he says. "I was in business before that clown (Seinfeld) and will be in business after he goes off the TV."
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efore you can get the man himself on the telephone, a publicist for Al Yeganeh -- the gourmet soup chef immortalized for Seinfeld fans the world over as the infamous "Soup Nazi" -- has a few "suggestions" to make the interview go smoothly.
