Amy Ferguson, who has lived in Hawaii for decades now but was instrumental in the development of the Southwestern cuisine culinary movement, talks about reading "Larousse Gastronomique" as a kid, encountering celebrity at a young age, and that time Julia Child kindly told her "you don't know anything."
Thirty years ago, Texans who equated fine dining with chicken cordon bleu and trout meunière suddenly found themselves eating barbecued Gulf shrimp and goat cheese quesadillas. An oral history of the Southwestern cuisine revolution.
How to cook up a culinary craze: Mix talented chefs, native ingredients, classical techniques, and good publicity. Name result “Southwestern.” Let spread across globe.
Where to Eat Southwestern in TexasReata Alpine Cowboy cooking rules, but you’ll find city touches like cream of jalapeño and cilantro soup and smoked-cabrito quesadillas in habanero barbecue sauce. After dinner in the simple wood-floored dining room, check out the sprawling mural of the original Reata, from Giant.Brio Austin At
Tacos go uptown in the hands of Dean Fearing. All it takes is a little lobster, jalapeño-spiked cheese, fresh spinach, and Fearing’s snappy yellow-tomato salsa. This new, beautifully photographed compendium by Arlene Feltman-Sailhac focuses on nine masters of Southwestern cuisine. Other Texas chefs spotlighted are Robert Del Grande of Houston’s
Autumn along San Antonio’s Paseo del Rio is truly a season of change—especially at the Zuni Grill (511 River Walk), where chef David James’s revamped menu creates a casual and innovative bill of fare with an intentional nod to the Southwest. But don’t expect a run-of-the-mill chile relleno at Zuni.
The latest culinary crazy, Cowboy Cuisine has put a new spin on traditional Texas cooking.
