Kevin Naderi

The Pho-ndamentals

A beginner's guide to Vietnamese cuisine.

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 >>

The Eating...Our Words 100: Randy Evans, Chef at Haven and Farm-to-Table Godfather

Randy Evans has an exuberant personality that comes through in his cooking at Haven: passionate about local products and seasonal produce, expressive of its Texas roots. There's no mistaking where you are when you're eating at Haven: It's Houston all the way. Evans's cooking at Haven is also highly ... More >>

Frank's Americana Revival and Chef Kevin Naderi of Roost: 2013 Menu of Menu's Big Winners

The annual Menu of Menus grand tasting is much more than just a night for our readers to come out, meet their favorite restaurants, find new favorites and get their faces stuffed with delicious grub. It's also a fierce competition. A wooden token was given to each guest as they entered Silver Stree ... More >>

This Week In Food Blogs: Houston Rising

Huffington Post: In the first of two articles that set Houstonian tongues wagging this week, travel writer David Landsel offers his reasons as to why Austin is the most overrated tourist destination in America -- and why Houston is the most underrated. Among them, Landsel includes "plenty of good fo ... More >>

In the Home Stretch for Menu of Menus: A Few Tickets Left

With just a few days left before this year's Houston Press Menu of Menus, coming this Tuesday night, fewer than 50 General Admission tickets and fewer than 100 VIP tickets remain. General admission tickets are $50 ($60 at the door) and VIP are $90. Menu of Menus kicks off at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, A ... More >>

Win 2 VIP Tickets to See Ryan Hildebrand of Trinti Battle Kevin Naderi at the Iron Fork Competition

The second competitor in our Iron Fork competition has been announced, and we've pulled out all the stops: Ryan Hildebrand, executive chef and owner of Triniti, will be going head to head with defending champion Kevin Naderi of Roost to see which chef can make the best two dishes with a secret ingre ... More >>

Welcome to The Good Life

I'm not sure if co-owners Jeff and Darren Van Delden were inspired by Kanye West's song Good Life when they named their new Midtown bar, but I can't say the name of their spot without singing the hook and wanting to make it rain. If you have been to the Van Deldens's other properties Saint Genevieve ... More >>

Houston Dominates Food & Wine's Best New Chef List

Each year, Food & Wine recognizes the nation's great up-and-coming chefs with The People's Best New Chef -- a contest which allows readers to vote on the 10 best new chefs from 10 regions around the country. This is the first year that Food & Wine has employed a Gulf Coast regional category -- excit ... More >>

Chef Randy Evans Hosting the Iron Fork Competition at 2013 Menu of Menus®

In 2012, Menu of Menus® celebrated its 10th anniversary with a move into a stunning new space -- Silver Street Station -- with plenty of room for the thousands of guests that showed up and with the inaugural Iron Fork competition. Last year saw master chef Monica Pope hosting the knock-out Iron Che ... More >>

13 Houston Chefs Who Have Celebrity Doppelgangers

Check out which local chef sure looks a lot like a Spice Girl, who might be hosting a game show in his spare time, and who we think is a long-lost triplet: See also: - 12 Celebrity Chefs Who Have Cartoon Doppelgangers - 13 Celebrity Chef Doppelgangers 13. Kaz Edwards vs. Joshua Jackson We could s ... More >>

Saint Genevieve's Brunch Scene: La Strada Lite

The next time you find yourself with nostalgic thoughts of the old La Strada scene (big gay brunch is the best kind of brunch, after all), I'd suggest one of two things: Head over to the unofficial "new" La Strada at Berryhill Baja Grill on Sunday and shake your ass to the pulsating music that can b ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Christine Ha and Alvin Schultz

This week, our Where The Chefs Eat series turns to two amateur chefs turned television reality stars: Christine Ha and Alvin Schultz. Both living in Houston and Vietnamese by descent, they each snagged a spot on the TV reality show, MasterChef. Schultz, who was featured on Season 2, is known for ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Last-Minute New Year's Eve Plans and New Menus for the New Year

Still no plans for New Year's Eve? You only have a few days left to plan, but here's a last-minute suggestion that features some of the most important dishes for celebrating the New Year: oysters, cabbage and greens. (No black-eyed peas, but you can make yourself a pot of those the next day as a com ... More >>

Underdogs and Juggernauts

The 10 best new restaurants of 2012.

How Do You Define Triniti?

In this week's cafe review of Triniti, the nearly indefinable restaurant from chef Ryan Hildebrand and his talented team of sous chefs, servers, bartenders, pastry chefs, sommeliers and managers sourced from the city's best restaurants, I struggled with how to define the restaurant itself. Unlike ot ... More >>

The 10 Best New Houston Restaurants of 2012

If I had to pick one word to describe the mad, exciting rush of restaurant activity that's defined 2012, it would be this: exhilarating. Followed closely by: exhausting. Trying to keep up with every single new restaurant that's flung open its doors exuberance -- welcoming the city's burgeoning food ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Amalia Pferd, Sean Carroll, John Peterson

Owning a food truck/mobile cart is hard work, but at the end of the day, you still gotta eat. For this week's Where the Chefs Eat series, we're checking in to see where some of Houston's on-the-go chef-proprietors get their grub on. Let's see where Amelia Pferd of Good Dog Hot Dogs, Sean Carroll o ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes 2012: No. 20, Roasted Cauliflower at Roost

This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston® issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least o ... More >>

Red Wine Pork Chop at Cafe 101

Cafe 101 reminds me of the Taiwanese/new-Chinese restaurants that opened up in Alhambra and Monterey Park, California about 10 years ago, catering to young-ish late-night crowd with its contemporary decor, flat screen TVs, impossibly long list of fashionable drinks, and generally attractive young wa ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Chris Shepherd, Ryan Pera, Antoine Ware

Since 2010, the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GHCVB) has been conducting "Where the Chefs Eat" Houston Culinary Tours, in which chefs take a group of people to visit secret gems centered around a theme. Past tours have included world barbecue, Korean/Japanese food, Mediterranean food ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat

Grant Gordon, Matt Marcus and Kevin Naderi

A Mouth-Watering Good Time at the Houston Press Menu of Menus®

What do you get when you cross a food sampling event with a live Iron Chef competition, musical entertainment, and an open bar? One hell of an event, otherwise known as the Houston Press Menu of Menus®. Tuesday night, the Houston Press, in conjunction with Stella Artois and Whole Foods, put on the ... More >>

Menu of Menus Extravaganza

Home to Roost

Young turk Kevin Naderi explores his roots and his passions at this homey spot on Fairview.

The Changing Cost of Bread Service

Complimentary bread service in restaurants was once as ubiquitous as free chips and salsa at any Tex-Mex spot. And it's still seen in a majority of restaurants, from fast food (free breadsticks at Fazoli's) to high end (a beautiful basket of gratis bread at Triniti). But as former New York Times fo ... More >>

Chefs Chosen for 2012 Iron Fork Competition: Let the Games Begin

You may have been to our annual Menu of Menus grand tasting in the past, but this year's event will be upping its game thanks to our first ever Iron Fork competition. Curated and emceed by Houston's own celebrity chef Monica Pope, the chef throwdown will take place Iron Chef-style in front of a live ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 3: Kevin Naderi of Roost - The Tasting

We've been chatting with Roost's chef/owner Kevin Naderi the last couple of days, learning how he found and opened his restaurant in two months flat, and about the intricacies of his cuisine, which, in addition to being farm-to-table, contain little touches of Persian and Asian flavors. It's been ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Kevin Naderi of Roost

Photos by Mai PhamChef/Owner Kevin Naderi of Roost​It's not often that a small restaurant becomes an instant hit, but from what I could see on a busy Tuesday night with a small line forming at the door, neighborhood eatery Roost possesses everything it needs to make it -- a small, cozy space; ... More >>

First Look at Roost

Roost is still BYOB for the time being, while new owner Kevin Naderi sorts out the last of his licensing issues.This is absolutely to your advantage, as the hatchling cafe, which only opened on December 11, is the sort of neighborhood bistro where you'll want to take a bottle of wine and settle in a ... More >>

Twitter and Tales from Everyone's Childhood on Top Chef: Texas

HERE'S PATTI LABELLE BECAUSE WHY NOT THAT'S WHY.​I left a dinner tonight at Roost earlier than I would have liked -- I really need to stop making dinner plans on Wednesday night, but my job more or less necessitates that I eat out every night -- and will circle back around to this fact shortly. Ne ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Coming Home to Roost

An inviting patio and good crepes still weren't enough to save La Mia.​This week brings a lot of sad news, so we'll get that out of the way first. Ripping the Band-Aid off and all that... Three restaurants closed this past week, two of which we actually liked. One of them even received a glow ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Trouble and Tacos

Photo by Chuck Cook​Blind Item of the Week: A Heights hotspot in a somewhat cursed location is rumored to be closing soon. Its intended replacement was said to have been a new Bruce Molzan restaurant, but the Ruggles owner's current legal troubles may prevent that from coming to fruition. What ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Every Day We're Shuffling

Photo by Ed T.What's happening with Ruggles Grill?​It's been a busy week to be in the restaurant business, especially if you're in Montrose. When Latina Cafe closed a few months ago, not many tears were shed over the loss of the little Cuban restaurant -- I liked it just fine, but it had gone ... More >>

First Look at Haven

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttCorndog shrimp with tabasco mash remoulade​It can't be easy for Randy Evans right now. Once the executive chef at Brennan's -- one of Houston's most perenially popular restaurants -- and now the man behind what is easily the most anticipated restaurant opening of th ... More >>