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A waitress at the Granite Cafe in Austin clears out of the proverbial kitchen when a pretend quarrel between chefs heats up.
Houston's Robert Del Grande, known for taking cowboy cuisine upscale, continues as the creative force behind the award-winning Cafe Annie. He also created an easygoing taco bar, Taco Milagro, and Rio Ranch Texas at the Hilton Westchase Hotel.
While these three chefs continue to be the state's best-known restaurant personalities, a whole new talented crew is on the rise. And although Houston and Dallas, the state's largest cities, continue to dominate the culinary scene, Austin, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and El Paso are turning out first-rate restaurants and chefs of note and acclaim.
In recent years, Dallas-Fort Worth has become the third largest market for prime beef, behind New York and Chicago. That means steak houses are nearly as common as cowboy boots on the local streets. Places like Del Frisco's, Al Biernat's, Bob's Steak and Chophouse, Chamberlains, The (Dallas) Palm, and Pappas Bros. Steakhouse (in both Dallas and Houston) are always at the top of the list whenever someone asks for a good spot to tuck into a big porterhouse.
Of course, beef is not all there is to Dallas dining. Danielle Custer of Laurels the Westin Park Central Hotel, and Doug Brown of Nana Grill, at the Wyndham Anatole, are two of the city's best young chefs. Custer was even recently named a Food and Wine magazine Rising Star. Their global reach for ingredients, techniques, and daring combinations—including African, Asian, and American flavors—makes their food a wonderful adventure that is garnering national attention.
Chef Kent Rathbun, a disciple of Dean Fearing, was the chef to watch during his stints at the Landmark Restaurant and at Seventeen Seventeen. He went on hiatus for a brief period but has returned as strong as ever with the opening of Abacus, a stunning setting in which he serves equally stunning Asian fusion cuisine to crowds of happy Dallas diners. And elsewhere in Dallas, Tom Fleming is bringing the luster back to the Riviera, which in the past was considered one of the great temples of local French cuisine. Chef Chris Ward is doing double duty, making waves at both The Mercury and Citizen. At the former he serves plates that marry New American food with Mediterranean cuisine, while his more recent venture, Citizen, is a Euro-Asian combination restaurant and sushi bar. But when folks are hungry for good, old Mex-Mex food, that is, classic Mexican dishes, they head for Javier's or La Valentina.
Who concocted the original margarita? It's reportedly named after the woman who invented it—and Margarita Sames (pictured left) will tell you she's the one. Will that be frozen, or on the rocks?
Just thirty miles west of Dallas, in Fort Worth, Grady Spears of Reata serves cowboy cuisine that charms and satisfies. In addition to his Cowboy in the Kitchen cookbook, he has Cowboy Cocktails on the way, plus he has opened a second Reata on oh-so-glitzy Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Back in Fort Worth, Louise Lamensdorf pleases diners at her Bistro Louise, with its suave Mediterranean menu, and Michael Thomson continues to serves up contemporary ranch cuisine at his eponymous Michael's.
Reata Restaurant in Fort Worth-before the lunch rush.
Houston's restaurant scene is one of the most vibrant in the state. Michael Cordua, of Houston's Churrascos and Américas, was one of the first chefs in the country to look beyond Mexican cuisine to the tables of South America. A native of Nicaragua, Cordua gambled that Texans were ready for dishes like churrasco, beef tenderloin with a piquant chimichurri sauce. So far, he's winning.
Other chefs have been busy developing new ideas as well. The latest ventures of veteran Bruce Molzan, of the popular Ruggles Grill and the Galleria-based Grille 5115, is Bistro Latino, specializing in Latino cuisine and live music, as well as the Ruggles Cafe Bakery. As if that were not enough, Molzan plans to build the only independently owned restaurant in Houston's new downtown Ballpark at Union Station.
Tim Keating at DeVille, in the Four Seasons Hotel, sustains a high level of culinary creativity. His fundamentally French cuisine speaks with an American regional accent. Chef-owner Monica Pope also has a French connection. Her Boulevard Bistrot is about the closest thing you'll find to a French sidewalk cafe in Houston. Despite the carefully crafted European atmosphere, Pope's sometimes daring plates are a celebration of the New American kitchen.
San Antonio's Riverwalk is lined with outdoor cafes and attracts visitors from around the world.
Among the old-time venues in Houston is the well-known Tony's, serving Continental and Italian cuisines, as well as Rotisserie for Beef and Bird, which boasts a top-flight wine list. Chef Mark Cox, who spent time behind the stove at Tony's, is now earning recognition with his own place, Mark's American Cuisine.
Austin is home to the state's most enthusiastic food community, a crowd of diehard boosters who avidly embrace Lone Star wines and products. No chefs exemplify the Austin—and Texas—spirit more than Hudson's on the Bend chef-owner Jeff Blank and executive chef Jay Moore, who are known for their ways with wild game and other regional favorites. Their toques are literally afire on the cover of their new book, Cooking Fearlessly: Stones and Adventures. Austin is also the place to find David Garrido's Jeffrey's, one of city's most popular destinations. Garrido, a Stephan Pyles's protege, has also co-authored a lively cookbook called Nuevo Tex-Mex, which delivers dozens of recipes featuring his distinctive take on contemporary Texas cuisine. If you are a traditionalist, you might head instead for Fonda San Miguel, where the kitchen is renowned for its classic Mexican cuisine.
Founded in 1976, the Llano Estacado Vineyards is the first modern winery of Texas. Winner of national and international awards, the Llano Estacado has emerged as the state's fastest growing winery.
San Antonio stretches along the river of the same name. Here, New Jersey native Scott Cohen, chef at La Mansion del Rio Hotel, has taken well to Texas ingredients. His natural culinary curiosity inspired a quick study of indigenous herbs and everyday favorites like tacos and enchiladas, which he has recast in a new, upmarket style. His dinnertime crowds prove that San Antonio's citizens like what he is doing. Meanwhile, award-winning chef Bruce Auden, known for his Restaurant BIGA, opened Biga on the Banks in early 2000. Located on the riverside, it offers New American cuisine with a Mediterranean flair.
Because it is tucked down in the far southwestern corner of the state, El Paso sometimes seems closer in spirit to New Mexico than Texas, but it is actually a culinary world unto itself. Yet chef-owner Trae Apodaca's Cafe Central, with its expertly realized contemporary regional flavors, is a match for any restaurant in the state. Across the street, The Dome, in the Camino Real Hotel, is yet another treasure that calls this community on the Rio Grande home.
Chefs in Texas are growing in number and sophistication. While the state remains proud of its Tex-Mex and barbecue traditions, the men and women behind its restaurant stoves are creating an up-to-the-minute culinary reputation built on adventurous flavors, experience, and, most of all, expertise. In other words, this wild bunch is serving great food to appreciative Texans from one end of the state to the other.
Chef Miguel Ravage-is the founder of Fonda San Miguel, a well-known authentic Mexican restaurant in Austin. One of the Southwest's top chefs, Ravago is co-author of the award-winning cookbook Concina de la Familia and is a James Beard
