French Food and Cooking

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Bistros

How do you define a bistro? If you're going to stick to the traditional Parisian definition, a bistro (or bistrot) is a small, tidy restaurant that serves inexpensive wine and simple dishes in a modest price range. Those dishes are traditionally French "comfort food" recipes like coq au vin, boeuf ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Cinco de My-Oh-My-Oh

If you don't already have plans for Sunday, May 5, look no further: Houston has muchas fiestas for Cinco de Mayo -- so many, in fact, that our own Abby Downing-Beaver has a whole guide to spending your Cinco in style. Activities include everything from the annual Cinco de Mayo Parade downtown on Su ... More >>

Paula or Pepin? Separate Savannah from Southern France, and Win Tickets to the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show

The Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show is coming to Houston this weekend, and Eating...Our Words has three pairs of tickets to see two of this year's celebrity speakers, Paula Deen and Jacques Pépin (two for Dean and one for Pépin). We would like nothing more than to give them away to you ... More >>

Our Favorite Julia Child Clips for Her 100th Birthday

For many of us, Julia Child was the first cook they ever saw on television. Mine was Graham Kerr, but Julia Child was a quick second after I became hooked on cooking shows. And boy, do they not make cooking shows like they used to. Julia Child was far less interested in being a celebrity or a person ... More >>

A Chocolate and Almond Cake for Julia Child

As Katharine Shilcutt noted this morning, today is Julia Child's 100th birthday, and in honor of this special day, I have made one of her best cakes, Reine De Saba, as seen in Julie & Julia. It's a semi-sweet chocolate cake with pulverized almonds and rum. I love everything about French food: the w ... More >>

Sommelier Vanessa Treviño Boyd Doesn't Kiss and Tell

Philippe sommelier and wine director Vanessa Treviño Boyd is not one to name drop. But even if she were, you really couldn't fault her for it. In conversation with her, once the ice is broken, she can rattle off a who's who of Burgundy and French-wine elites whom she counts among her most intimate ... More >>

The Food Lover's Guide to Paris has Gone High Tech: There's an App for That

The indispensable guidebook to Paris by French food authority Patricia Wells is The Food Lover's Guide to Paris. Wells knows exactly where to find the flakiest croissants, the essential bistros, the most knowledgeable wine merchants, the richest, darkest chocolates, the most sublime cheeses, the ear ... More >>

Vive La France: Central Market Kicks off Passport France with a Bang

You really have to appreciate it when someone throws a party and goes all out, no expense spared. That's what Central Market did for its Passport France kickoff event this past Thursday evening, which was held in a white tented affair that had the high society feel of the Kentucky Derby. Indeed, I ... More >>

First Look at L'Olivier Restaurant and Bar

I am a bit of a Francophile. My brother lived in France for a year and when I visited him in the small town of Vichy I was hooked. The language, the laissez-faire attitude and in particular the food drew me in. I even took eight years of French, but please don't ask me to say anything. So for someo ... More >>

Look at That S Car Go

It's not just a punchline to a joke in that classic holiday movie, Trading Places. Now it's also a Houston food truck. L'es-Car-Go -- pronounced just like l'escargot -- will be the city's first all-French food truck. Jean-Philippe and Genevieve Guy, owners of the 14-year-old Bistro Provence in Memo ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Aquilas Chavez of La Fisheria

The first time you meet Mexican Chef and Latin American TV personality Aquilas Chavez of the new restaurant, La Fisheria, you immediately get a sense of his larger-than-life personality. He's gregarious, funny, confident, outgoing, and wholly unselfconscious. But most importantly, he grew up in the ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 3: Amanda McGraw of Brasserie 19 - The Tasting

This week, we've been chatting with Brasserie 19 and Ibiza's Chef de Cuisine, Amanda McGraw, about the rewards of staging in kitchens outside of Houston, and about the specifics of her role. Today, we sample some of her food. To highlight the in-house charcuterie program, McGraw put together a pict ... More >>

Chef Philippe Schmit Receives Prestigious Maîtres Cuisiniers de France Title

Photo by Nancy Kerschen​When he first moved to the United States from his home country of France in 1990, Philippe Schmit worked as a sous chef under famous chef Eric Ripert -- a fellow Frenchman -- in the New York kitchens of Le Bernadin, eventually moving on to become executive chef at La Go ... More >>

All About Schmit

The French Cowboy's Philippe is both elegant and playful.

Whatever Happened to Baked Alaska? Five Out-of-Style Dishes

The meringue makes it extra fancy.​In the course of researching Turkducken's real age last week, I turned to one of my favorite food resources on the Internet: the Food Timeline. If you're a food nerd, prepare to lose dozens of hours to the fascinating depths of the Food Timeline and its entri ... More >>

Beef Bourguignon Crepes

​For my birthday my college boyfriend took me to adorable French restaurant Beau Monde in Philadelphia, where I had the best crepes I've ever tasted. Ever since then I have been dreaming about that savory, buckwheat crepe filled with the most wonderful beef bourguignon. Then recently, while I ... More >>

Shiftwork Bites: Cassoulet

​Shiftwork Bites is all about flexibility. Sometimes, that just means altering a cooking method to suit my circumstances. Occasionally, it means taking liberties with the specifics of a recipe. Such was the case over the weekend when I decided to make a batch of cassoulet for my coworkers. T ... More >>

The Great Food Truck Race, Episode 2: Recap

The Ragin' Cajun team. ​8:00 - Recap of last week's episode. Damn, this is a long recap! 8:01 - Here we are in Santa Fe with six trucks remaining: Crepes Bonaparte, Grill 'Em All, Austin Daily Press, Nom Nom Truck, Rajin' Cajun, and Spencer on the Go. Tyler is still wearing a hideous outfit. ... More >>

Recipe: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

​After Julie Powell's online rendezvous with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, everyone started talking about Child's Beef Bourguignon. Before Powell, and then Meryl Streep, breathed life back into this traditional French beef stew, only professional chefs and skilled cooks ha ... More >>

10 Deceptively Easy Dishes

​Boeuf bourguignon. Coq au vin. Molten chocolate cake. Fancy-sounding dishes for fancy-sounding meals, right? Whether you're impressing a date or an entire dinner party, there are certain items you can serve that will have the room applauding your culinary skills -- and have you taking it easy ... More >>

The Basics: Cookbooks

​We recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal on Alton Brown's top five favorite cookbooks. You remember Brown. He's the quirky chemistry geek on Good Eats and one of the commentators on Iron Chef. If you're one of the few non-Food Network junkies, you might recognize him from Welch' ... More >>

Top 9 Houston Restaurant Closings of the Decade

Photo by emmiegrnThe Pig Stand, one of Houston's lost restaurants. Read about nine more of the most important restaurant closings of the decade below.​1. Maxim's Maxim's closed in January 2001. It was possibly the most influential restaurant in Houston's culinary history. It was the only upsca ... More >>

Pot au Pho

This funky trailer in South Houston is worth the drive for Vietnamese breakfast.

Burgers and Hash

Lola, a modern diner in the Heights is dishing up some top-notch Texas short-order cooking.

Lunch at Le Mistral

Photos by J.C. Reid​Houstonians have a peculiar relationship with French restaurants. Many Houstonians (and many Texans and Americans) cast a suspicious glance toward anything French. During the 2004 Presidential election, an anonymous source in the George W. Bush campaign remarked that oppone ... More >>

Top Chef

In praise of the Julia half of Julie & Julia.

Flea Market French

Georges Guy is back in a big way with La Brocante Cafe.

On a Budget at Bistro des Amis

La Nouvelle Recession Cuisine at Au Petit Paris

Your dollar buys a little less at this new French restaurant on Colquitt

Bistro Provence

The second generation of the Guy family has taken over at the popular French bistro on Memorial

Brasserie Max and Julie

We love to see classic French food in Houston, but we complain bitterly if it isn't just like what we had in Paris

Boil and Reduce

Bistro Moderne

An Aging French Romantic

Sometimes filet mignon with foie gras, truffles and a second-rate Bordeaux is just what the doctor ordered

Un-French Frites

Mussels and fries, monk beers and Belgian pride abound at Cafe Montrose

Brain Food

You may puzzle over the menu at Robert Gadsby's Noé, but you'll love the clever chow

It's Le Bombe

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

French Food Sans Frenchmen

Lazy lunching in a River Oaks hideaway

Cupid Plays the Odds

Does Restaurant Ronit/Café Beignet pass Valentine's Day muster?

A Tale of Two Critics

The coffee is strong and the pastries are excellent, but Le Bec Fin isn't your typical French cafe

Master Baker

Auchan Hypermarket

Best Pre- or Post-Theater Restaurant

Papillon Bistro Français

Paris Matched

Laurier Café is turning out Parisian bistro food at Paris, Texas, prices

French for Beginners

Le Mistral offers culture in a suburban strip shopping mall

La Bonne Vie Outside the Loop

Bistro Le Cep offers up some very nice French cuisine in the Houston countryside.

Folk Art on Bread

Yes, we visited that Original New Orleans Po' Boy

Dish

Ten Years of Provence

After a decade, Chez Georges still offers the city's best French food

Grade A

At the University of Houston, Barron's makes college food like you've never seen

Ari's: The Sequel

Fast French