Tastemaker Pastry Chefs

Tastemaker Best Pastry Chef nominees craft sweet, edible art at Dallas restaurants

Welcome to the second category reveal in the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, our celebration of the talent in the Dallas food and drink community. We've already taken a look at the nominees for Best Rising Star Chef. Now it's time to celebrate the mad scientists of the kitchen: pastry chefs.

The Best Pastry Chef contenders are like wizards, who take everyday ingredients and, using chemistry and imagination, magically transform them into edible works of art. It's the sweetest category of all.

Jill Bates, Fearing's
After earning two degrees — one in restaurant, hotel and institutional management from Texas Tech and another in culinary arts from San Francisco's California Culinary Academy — Jill Bates worked at restaurants in San Francisco before returning to Texas. In Dallas, she's done pastry for Dragonfly and Craft Dallas before joining Dean Fearing at Fearing's. Eater dubbed her "Hottest Chef in Dallas."

Nicolas Blouin, Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek
A native of France, Nicolas Blouin started working at a bakery in his hometown of Toulouse when he was 15. He's bounced back and forth between America and Europe, from the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resort hotel to a series of Michelin-starred restaurants in Switzerland and France to the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Nancy Castillo, Reverie Bakeshop
Former cake decorators Nancy Castillo and Racene Mendoza blazed a trail when they opened Reverie Bakeshop in Richardson, the Dallas area's first vegan bakery, in 2013. Castillo, a vegan herself, attended Le Cordon Bleu, then worked at area bakeries such as Tu-Lu's and Petit Fours.

Stephanie Childress, Gemma
A native of Kerrville, Stephanie Childress attended the Culinary Institute of America before working for Mario Batali in Las Vegas at B&B, Enoteca and Otto. More recently, she worked at Bradley Ogden in Las Vegas. She's currently ensconced at one of Dallas' most talked-about restaurants, where her desserts favor fruit flavors and simplicity.

David Collier, Spoon
Creative and innovative, David Collier started his Dallas career at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, where he worked during the John Tesar era. He left the Mansion in 2011 and headed for the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia, where his family lives. He returned to Dallas in early 2013 to re-join Tesar as pastry chef at Spoon.

Lucia Merino, Oak
A 27-year-old native of Puerto Rico, Lucia Merino comes with a long and interesting resume that includes a degree from Johnson & Wales in Miami, as well as stints at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort and the Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne. She moved to Dallas from Miami specifically to join the staff at Oak; her approach in pastry is to start with the classic desserts and give them a spin.

Ruben Torano, CBD Provisions
Ruben Torano comes from a pastry family: His father, Rafael, was also a pastry chef who worked at the Warwick Melrose Hotel. Ruben has been at The Joule dating back to the Charlie Palmer days and supervises not only the pastry at CBD, but also the hotel. Previously he did pastry for Nobu and Nana, where he worked for two years with chef Anthony Bombaci.

Kate Weiser, Kate Weiser Chocolate
With her combination of perfectionism and artfulness, Kate Weiser has carved out a niche as Dallas' best chocolatier. She first attracted attention for her gorgeous, gem-like creations at Chocolate Secrets on Oak Lawn Avenue. She has since gone solo, with plans to open her own eponymous spot at Trinity Groves.

Laurel Wimberg, AF+B
A native of Kansas, Laurel Wimberg is a critics' favorite who first came into the public eye as pastry chef at the splashy Craft Dallas. She did pastry for the short-lived JoJo's, then for restaurateur Shannon Wynne at Lark on the Park, before joining Consilient Hospitality, where she makes desserts for AF+B in Fort Worth and Fireside Pies.

---

Come celebrate the Tastemakers with us on Tuesday, May 6, at Seven for Parties in the Dallas Design District. To learn more about the event, including information about our beneficiaries, judges, participating restaurants and ticket sales, visit our Tastemakers website.

Laurel Wimberg, AF+B

Photo by Hoyoung Lee

Laurel Wimberg, AF+B

unspecified series554589738

Taco News

Award-winning Dallas restaurant Taco Y Vino branches out to buzzy 'burb

Taco Y Vino

An award-winning taco restaurant in Dallas is bringing its taco magic to Garland: Taco Y Vino, the innovative gourmet taqueria and casual wine bar in Oak Cliff, is opening a second location in downtown Garland, in a darling storefront at 706 Main St. that was formerly home to Jim's Barber Shop.

Taco Y Vino is the brainchild of the ultra-charismatic Jimmy Contreras, a hospitality veteran who cut his teeth at Pappas Restaurants then worked for more than 15 years in the wine industry, representing boutique wineries and helping restaurants build their wine lists.

He developed the original idea of a restaurant doing a fine-dining twist on tacos, along with an affordable wine list, and opened Taco Y Vino in 2018. Its combination of good food and wine at low prices made it an instant favorite.

"We always want to be affordable — a place you can go daily to grab bottle of wine and tacos, but also nice enough to bring out of town guests," he says.

The menu features a "three tacos for $14" that lets you mix and match fillings like cochinita pibil (pulled pork braised in bitter orange & achiote), pork carnitas, carne asada, barbacoa, brisket guiso, ahi tuna, tempura catfish or shrimp, chicken tinga with guacamole, black bean & cheese, and fried avocado.

Shareable dishes include jalapeno poppers stuffed with catfish and shrimp; and avocado "toastadas" — a witty twist on avocado toast, featuring corn tostadas topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, and pickled onions.

They do brunch — but it's every day from 11:30 am-3 pm, with dishes like Brisket Con Huevo, featuring stewed brisket and scrambled eggs on a flour tortilla.

Everything about the place is much like Contreras himself: approachable, friendly, and fun, and has generated intense goodwill and loyalty for the restaurant among locals and foodies alike. There is no one who does not love Jimmy.

Jimmy Contreras with a glass of wine.Courtesy

"Oak Cliff has been amazing to us," Contreras says. "We're so grateful for the support from neighbors, diners, and wine lovers, and we have great employees who give a sense that they're happy to be there, which has definitely been a big part of our success."

With the original location humming along, Contreras began considering another location. It only took one visit to downtown Garland and he was smitten.

"We immediately fell in love," he says. "The area has great old buildings and businesses like Intrinsic Brewing, Fortunate Son, Rose Cafe, Latham Bakery, plus music-forward places like guitar shops and Dead Wax, the record store. It just felt like a cool place to hang out."

Garland has been undergoing a major transformation, one that includes a big revitalization of the Downtown Garland Historic District.

The building they're going into was built in 1928 and they're doing as little as possible to alter the original structure. It's 1300 square feet, with a front and back patio, patio being part of Taco Y Vino's DNA. (They even won a CultureMap Tastemaker Award in 2024 for Best Patio, hoo-rah.)

"We did remove the stucco wall so that the original brick could come through, and we're putting in doors and windows from that timeframe to match," he says. "We just want to keep it as is."

The menu will be the same, with one exception.

"Garland will have not only wine but cocktails," Contreras says. "You would not believe how many people walk in and ask about margaritas. So we'll do a frozen margarita, a paloma, ranch water, a sage margarita on the rocks — but not a full bar."

Their planned for opening date is the end of summer.

Contreras' idea when he opened was to have a business where he did not always have to answer to somebody, to not have a boss. "But every person who comes in is my boss," he says. "I think that service ideology is something you can never lose."

tacos openings