Culinary Arts

Chef Maurizio Ferrarese Offers Cooking Classes and Comedy at Quattro

I've been to plenty of cooking classes and cooking demonstrations over the years, but none as enjoyable as the one I attended last week Quattro. Much of this is attributable to the genial Maurizio Ferrarese, executive chef at the Four Seasons' in-house restaurant and a natural teacher who blends hum ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Matt Marcus of Eatsie Boys Food Truck, on Selling Food out of His Dorm Room in Military School and Landing an Internship at The Fat Duck

Matt Marcus Eatsie Boys Food Truck 845-430-8479 www.eatsieboys.com This is Part 1 of a three-part chef chat series. Parts 2 and 3 will run in this same space on Thursday and Friday. The Eatsie Boys have one of the most popular food trucks in Houston right now. Known for their pork snuggies, fanc ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Oktoberfest Contests, Beer-and-Burger Pairings and Free Food Truck Lunches for All

Celebrate 20 years of artist studios at Lawndale Art Center and five years of the Lawndale Artist Studio Program with Tasteful Art, a special tasting event featuring local contemporary artists and chefs at the historic and beautiful Hofheinz House (3900 Milam). Lawndale is bringing culinary artists ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Erin Smith of Plonk Bistro, on Her Externship at Per Se

Erin Smith Plonk Bistro 1214 West 43rd Street 713-290-1070 www.plonkbistro.com This is the first part of a three-part chef chat series. Look for Part 2 and Part 3 in this space Thursday and Friday. There are just a handful of female executive chefs in Houston, and at 29, Erin Smith of Plonk Bistr ... More >>

Chef Chat Part 2: Ronnie Killen -- He's Just a Big, Sensitive Guy

Ronnie Killen Killen's Steakhouse 2804 South Main, Pearland 281-485-0844 www.killenssteakhouse.com This is the second of a three-part chef chat series. Click here to read part one. As I talked more with Chef Ronnie Killen, a picture emerged of a man who is humble, soft-spoken and sensitive, with ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Kaz Edwards of Uchi Houston on Culinary School, Staging at Uchi and Working with Tyson Cole

Kaz Edwards Uchi Houston 904 Westheimer 713-522-4808 uchirestaurants.com/houston This is the first part of a three-part chef chat series, which will continue over the next two days in this space. People who think that Uchi Houston is just about sushi should think again. The Uchi kitchen turns out ... More >>

The Cake Boss: Buddy Valastro on Experience Over Education and the Importance of Small Businesses in America

​Buddy Valastro is better known as The Cake Boss, and his eponymous show on TLC -- Cake Boss -- has become one of the network's biggest hits. The show, which averaged 2.3 million viewers during its first season, follows Valastro and his family as they run Carlo's Bakery, the family business in ... More >>

Local Student Joshua Christie Is Le Cordon Bleu's Future Chef Winner

​They always start young. Joshua Christie says he remembers helping around the kitchen as a little kid, and that lifelong passion for cooking helped lead him to win the 9th Annual Le Cordon Bleu Future Chef of America Culinary Scholarship Competition on June 12th. Having attended Langham Creek ... More >>

Designer Meats

In Houston, more and more chefs are curing their own pig products

Chef Chat, Part 1: Adam Puskorius of Polo's

​Polo's New American has a young executive chef with some great Houston roots. We dropped by one afternoon to pay him a visit and see what Polo's is all about. Eating Our Words: How did your culinary tales begin? Adam Puskorius: Before becoming executive chef of Polo's, I was a sous chef at ... More >>

Top 11 Houston Restaurant Openings of the Decade

Since I started my job as restaurant critic of the Houston Press in May of 2000, I've had a chance to observe the Houston restaurant scene for just about the entire decade. Our fine dining scene has evolved in the last ten years, and so have our ethnic cuisines. Houston became the birthplace of some ... More >>

Taco Truck Gourmet: Eating with Edge

​Noted food writer and Southern Foodways Alliance founder John T. Edge was in town this week researching a new book about street food. Edge already knows his way around Houston pretty well after putting on a Potlikker Film Festival event at the Saint Arnold's Brewery a couple of summers ago. E ... More >>

Chef Talk: Mother Rucker

Fabio​Cutting-edge chef Randy Rucker doesn't even have a kitchen. Eating Our Words crashed a private event he booked to get a look at what keeps him the most sought-after renegade around. Eating Our Words: What made you interested in molecular gastronomy? Randy Rucker: I'm not a boxer, so do ... More >>

Chef Rick Bayless: Reluctant Rock Star

Photo by J.C. Reid​A visitor to Macy's at Memorial City Mall last Wednesday would have been surprised at the more than 100 people -- many of them young women -- lined up in the Kitchen and Home area. Were the Jonas Brothers endorsing a line of tableware? No, but it was a rock star of sorts -- ... More >>

Radio Robb: Tune In Tonight and Tomorrow

​Our very own Robb Walsh will be making a guest appearance on The Michael Berry Show tonight and tomorrow night at 7 p.m., discussing a range of topics so wide that it necessitated two evenings of air time. Michael Berry -- who coincidentally just happened to win Best Local Radi ... More >>

One Night Only! Pork Belly Madness at Catalan!

Photo by stu spivak​Monday, Monday, Monday! The battle to beat all battles will be held tonight at Catalan featuring contenders from across the city as they compete to claim the prize of Houston's best pork belly. The third in a series of popular "throwdown" events organized by Jenny Wang ... More >>

Washington Ave. Revisited

Forget what I said about Catalan – Chris Shepherd is one of the top toques in Texas.

The Battle Rages On: Fried Chicken Throwdown at Beaver's

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttRonnie Killen's skillet fried chickenSome had come for the spectacle of it all: 17 different fried chicken dishes, 9 enormous casseroles filled with various macaroni and cheeses, salads and side dishes and desserts enough to feed Alexander's own army. Some had come to obs ... More >>

5th Annual Tomato Fest

Web exclusive!

Talk About a Fundraiser

Photos by Jeff BalkeChef Albert Roux at the restaurant's grand opening in MarchChez Roux, the very fancy, very upscale top restaurant at La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa on Lake Conroe, is putting on a six-course wine dinner Saturday, June 6. It will cost $500 per couple, or $600 , if you want t ... More >>

Molecular Madness at Max's Wine Dive

Photos by J.C. Reid Pretty. But is it pretty tasty? What if our relationship to food was not one of physical necessity? What if we consumed food not for corporeal nourishment but solely for pleasure and intellectual stimulation, much as a music lover consumes a symphony or as an art lover consu ... More >>

Bryan Caswell: Houston's Best New Chef

How do i begin; excited, elated, humbled, floored, it doesnt even scratch the surface! Me? Houston? Really? (my 1st 3 words to Dana Cowin) Photo courtesy of Wholefish Bryan Caswell in his trademark Astros ballcapBryan Caswell, who was just named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs ... More >>

Embarassing Moments In TV Cooking History: Welcome to the List, Padma

Padma Lakshmi isn't technically a celebrity chef. Yes, she's published two cookbooks and hosted/starred in an array of food-related programming. But she's also known for plenty of other endeavors, chief among them being married to Salman Rushdie and her career as a highly successful Indian model/act ... More >>

Free Cooking Classes: Monica Pope is Plum Crazy

And I mean that in the best possible way, of course.  In addition to creating one of the more popular farmers markets in town, Monica Pope -- head chef at locavore paradise t'afia -- is now offering free cooking classes every Saturday morning at the restaurant, located at 3701 Travi ... More >>

Texas Chili: A Frozen Bowl of Red without Beans

Whole Foods is selling plastic tubs of frozen chili concocted by Frank X. Tolbert, Jr. who also goes by the name, X squared. It's made out of ground beef instead of beef chunks and it's a little short on salt for my tastes, but otherwise it's a decent bowl of red. There are no beans in it, of cour ... More >>

Gingerbread House Smackdown at VOICE Tonight

Click here for a slideshow... Tonight's the night that the results of a gingerbread house baking and design contest orchestrated by VOICE Restaurant Executive Chef Michael Kramer will be revealed to the world. In keeping with the season, Kramer challenged the city's best pastry chefs to put toge ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants in the Restaurant Industry

Mexican immigrant Hugo Ortega went from washing dishes to owning Houston's best Mexican restaurant — now he has a few things to say about immigration

Chefs Rule!

If you can't stand the sight of lopped-off digits and the smell of your own flesh burning, get out of the kitchen

Pope: The Garden Gourmet

Monica Pope

It's Le Bombe

A new restaurant has Republican bigwigs dancing on the grave of the French boycott

Grande Plans

Houston's most famous chef talks about prostate cancer, turning 50 and what's next for Cafe Annie

Odd Timing

Bruce Auden cooks a benefit dinner for the scandal-ridden James Beard Foundation

Cooked Book

The real chefs' surprise is who made it -- or didn't -- into Culinary Capital

Best Restaurant

Best Grocery Store

All the Way to the Bank

What does it take to get a celebrity chef to put his name on a Houston restaurant?

Best Chef

Scott Tycer

Best Indian Restaurant

Restaurant Indika

The In-Tycer

National honors go to the chef at Aries

Southern Specialty

You can take TV chef Tanya Holland out of the South, but you can't take the South out of her

Best Local Television Commercial

Fiesta Mart

Good with Knives

Speaking off the toque: Jacques Fox

Cowboy in the Kitchen

Welcome The Houston Press's new food critic, Robb Walsh

Hot Plate

Americas

Thanks for Nothing

The Chronicle's annual parade of prepackaged Thanksgiving recipes needs to be canned

Guest Doesn't Outlast Welcome

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The Art of Cooking?

At the Restaurant at the Art Institute, professional cookingis taught -- sort of

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