From Asian flavors to seasonal, live-fire surprises, some of Texas’s best chefs went for the unexpected at The Edge of Texas nighttime events Friday at Fashion Industry Gallery and Saturday at the historic Longhorn Ballroom. We spoke to the chefs—while eating our way through their fare, of course—about the dishes they created for the events.
Chef-owner Chris Shepherd of Underbelly and One Fifth Romance Languages in Houston: “Underbelly is known for international influences, and Vietnamese is one of them. For the Edge, we decided to do this sausage called cha lua that’s very iconic to that culture but not well known in America—basically Vietnamese bologna. We made it from scratch, crisped it up a little, and served it with a green papaya salad and whiskey-barrel-aged fish sauce.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Jason Dady, chef-owner of San Antonio restaurants including Tre Trattoria, Range, and Two Bros. BBQ Market: “For this festival, I was trying to take Texas barbecue in a different direction, so I started with traditional smoked beef short ribs, but instead of the side dishes you’d expect, I did a Thai cucumber salad with Szechuan peppercorn oil—it’s spicy but not too spicy.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Austin’s Mathew Peters, the former executive sous chef at New York’s Per Se who helped the U.S. team win the prestigious Bocuse d’Or for the first time in the international culinary competition’s history: “This is a play on the idea of blinis and caviar. We made miniature potato pancakes with added scallop mousse for richness, then topped them with trout roe, chives, and crème fraiche infused with smoked Szechuan peppercorns. It’s unexpected because it goes in a Chinese direction.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Chefs Lance Gillum of Uchi in Houston and Alex Astranti of Uchi in Dallas: “Sake kosho is one of the newest dishes on the menu at Uchi in both Dallas and Houston, and it has really caught on. It’s cured salmon with kiwi, cherry tomatoes, kumquats, and puffed rice, with dried red shiso leaves—it seemed edgy to us.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Michael Fojtasek, chef-owner of Olamaie in Austin: “One of my favorite ingredients is Tennessee’s applewood-and-hickory-smoked Tennshootoe ham, which is one of the very best American hams. It’s dry-cured for 18 months and has a wonderful depth of flavor. I combined it with field peas and goat cheese from Bee Tree Farm in Manor.
Photography by Gary Miller
Junior Borges, corporate executive chef of the Joule restaurants and Mirador in Dallas: "When you think of nigiri sushi, you think of raw fish, and when you think of live fire, you think of grilled or seared beef, so we just flipped those ideas for the two events in the Edge of Texas festival. This sushi is with made with Texas Wagyu beef (from A Bar N Ranch) plus a hit of ponzu sauce, and I added yuzu kosho made with fermented jalapeño to punch it up. We wanted one simple bite, clean and flavorful."
Photography by Gary Miller
Chef Zach Hunter of the Brewer’s Table restaurant and brewery, set to open in Austin in the spring: “We decided to do Italian-style lardo, but with swordfish belly instead of pork fatback. We cured the fish with fresh hops, salt, sugar, and lots of coriander, then we lightly smoked and shaved it and used a slice of it to wrap around chopped raw apple and turnips. The topping is a sauce of caramelized pumpkin and annatto seeds.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Maggie Louise Callahan of Maggie Louise Confections in Austin: “We specialize in whimsical chocolates and candies. We brought some of our more nostalgic styles tonight, but we have several lines of fun, creative chocolates. One is a “sushi” box and another one, made especially for Austin, contains a tiny breakfast taco made entirely from chocolate.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Laura Sawicki, executive pastry chef of Launderette in Austin: “I really wanted to celebrate fall and the arrival of cooler weather, so I made little crepes using wonderful rye and whole wheat flours from Barton Springs Mill. We warmed them up and filled them with sweet potato jam and toppings of dulce de leche and a dab of labneh yogurt.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Rene Ortiz, executive chef, and Nayan Desai, chef, of Launderette in Austin: “We served pork a couple of ways, including on a slider with pretzel bread. We thought it was pretty edgy for Texas because we cooked it in a Cuban-style caja china, which is basically a pig-roasting box. It was seasoned with lots of oregano and garlic and chiles. On the side, we roasted butternut squash in ashes and served scoops of it with pumpkin-seed-and-rosemary chimichurri.”
Photography by Gary Miller
Junior Borges of the Joule and Mathew Peters, leader of Bocuse d’Or winning team: “We wanted to do something a little different from the usual pork and beef grilled/smoked/seared thing that you see at live-fire events, so we wrapped sturgeon in kombu, grilled it, and served it served with anchovy vinaigrette and sunflower seeds. After that, we charred the octopus and topped it very simply with lemon and romesco sauce.
Photography by Gary Miller
Kevin Fink, chef-owner of Emmer & Rye in Austin: “I’m from southern Arizona, so I thought our style of taco would be a bit of a change of pace for Texans. For two days, we made super- thin flour tortillas with a special wheat from Sonora. Then we braised pork leg and topped it with a benne seed mole and cured cabbage. It’s not like anything you see here.”
Photography by Gary Miller
