Houston Launches “Where the Chefs Eat” Culinary Tours
Top Houston Chefs Expose City’s Foodie Secrets
Houston, TX October 19, 2009 – Houston restaurants have been making
national news lately. Houston chefs have graced the covers of Food and
Wine and Bon Appetit, brought home James Beard Awards and have enjoyed
the kind of recognition that many residents and foodies feel has been a
long time coming.
But it’s not the upscale restaurants that set Houston apart from major
foodie cities like Chicago, San Francisco or even Las Vegas. It’s the
small, independent, ethnic restaurants whose recipes have been passed
down from generation to generation that separates Houston’s personality
from other cities. And four Houston chefs-all who have the clout and
national reputations to simply rest on their laurels-have made it their
mission to show both residents and visitors the underbelly of Houston’s
foodie scene.
In conjunction with Whole Foods Market and the Greater Houston
Convention and Visitors Bureau, chefs Bryan Caswell (Reef, Little Bigs
and Stella Sola), Randy Evans (Haven), Monica Pope (T’afia and Beaver’s)
and Chris Shepherd (Catalan) are launching culinary tours to showcase
Houston restaurants, markets and neighborhoods that make Houston one of
the most diverse culinary cities in the world.
With only 15 people per tour, the participants will gain intimate
knowledge about the city: unexplored neighborhoods; undiscovered
restaurants; and markets and farmers that contribute to the
locally-driven menus of each chef.
Each location is selected by the chefs, so the tours vary, depending on
which chefs are leading. All tours will begin and end at Whole Foods
Market.
Tour details
2010 dates
Sunday, January 10: Media preview (a selection of locations from the
public tours)
11am-4pm (Caswell, Evans, Pope, Shepherd)
Sunday, March 14: A Taste of Southeast Asia
Featuring Kasra Persian Grill, Balaji Bawan, Sin Sin and Kim Tai
11am-4pm (Caswell, Pope)
Sunday, April 18: Grocery Stores and Ethnic Markets
Featuring Thai Grocery, Lankford Grocery, Hong Kong Market and Polonia
11am-4pm (Evans, Shepherd)
Sunday, Sept. 12: Long Point Road
Featuring a diverse selection of the most authentic ethnic restaurants
in the city
11am-4pm (Caswell, Shepherd)
Sunday, Oct. 10: Fair Food
Featuring Ray’s Franks and More, MAM’s House of Ice Snoballs, Frenchy’s
Chicken and My Dee Dee’s Pie Shop and Deli
11am-4pm (Evans, Pope)
Cost: $180 per person
Tickets for the tours will be available through concierge at Whole Foods
Market Kirby, 2955 Kirby Drive, Houston, TX 77098. Tickets may also be
purchased by phone by calling 713.520.1937 713.520.1937.
About the Chefs
Bryan Caswell
“All of our food is born from these types of places. It’s the
foundation of what we do.”
Staying true to his Gulf Coast roots, Chef/Owner Bryan Caswell imparts
his love for fishing and the ocean in his seasonally-changing,
award-winning Reef restaurant. Diners love the spot’s refined blend of
locally-grown produce and use of Third-Coast-caught seafood, as do
foodies on the national stage. In 2009, Caswell was named a
Semi-Finalist for a James Beard Award, Food & Wine magazine named him
one of the “Top 10 Best New Chefs,” and he was named to Continental
Airlines’ Congress of Chefs. Stay tuned as he continues to expand his
biz in Little Bigs-his laid-back, slider-serving burger joint and wine
bar concept.
Randy Evans
“A lot of people miss Houston’s rich history-homegrown and
immigrant-because they stay in their own little bubble and don’t really
know what their city has to offer.”
Hot on the heels of opening his new certified-green restaurant, Haven,
Executive Chef and Co-Owner Randy Evans continues to source
locally-grown produce in his modern Texas-style cuisine. The
restaurant-which opened in October ’09-is the product of Evans’ more
than decade-long experience in Houston’s culinary scene. As Executive
Chef of Brennan’s Restaurant, the Art Institute-grad was named one of
three “Chefs of the Future” by Texas Monthly magazine and “Upcoming Chef
of the Year” by My Table magazine. Evans has also published an
award-winning cookbook, The Kitchen Table.
Monica Pope
“We always say that it’s the people that make Houston what it is. These
are the people that make Houston.”
Dubbed the “Alice Waters of the Third Coast,” German-born,
Houston-reared chef Monica Pope has been revolutionizing Houston’s
culinary scene since she opened her first restaurant in 1992. She shares
her passion for connecting local farmers and consumers in her successful
Midtown Farmers Market, weekly cooking classes and t’afia and Beaver’s
restaurants. Pope has also enjoyed national recognition in the form of a
James Beard award nomination and remains the only Texas woman chef to be
named Best New Chef by Food & Wine thanks to her inventive, “eat where
your food lives” cooking style.
Chris Shepherd
“There are actually very few people living in Houston that are
originally from here, so we have access to so many cultures-things to
see and things to taste. People need to take advantage of that.”
Midwest-raised Chef Chris Shepherd spent weekends as a child scouring
farms throughout Oklahoma in search of straight-from-the-vine tomatoes,
fresh corn and peas. Today, he’s the mastermind manning the stoves at
Houston’s Spanish-leaning, boundary-pushing Catalan restaurant-a place
Robb Report recently declared one of its 100 Favorite Restaurants in the
world. There, the Art Institute-alum and former Executive Sous
Chef-turned-Sommelier of Brennan’s brings his farm-to-table passion to
fruition in decadent dishes like the wildly-popular crisp pork belly
with cane syrup and Foie gras bon bons.
Houston is a cultural melting pot home to a vibrant arts scene, thriving
ethnic neighborhoods and NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Houston is one of
a handful of American cities to house professional theater companies for
each of the major arts disciplines. Sports fans can rally behind
Houston’s professional teams in nearly every major sport. Houston is
also home to the world’s largest concentration of medical professionals,
world’s largest rodeo and nationally acclaimed restaurants and shopping.
www.visithoustontexas.com <http://www.visithoustontexas.com/> .