Tastemaker Best Chefs

Tastemaker Best Chef nominees put national spotlight where it belongs: on Dallas

In our first-ever CultureMap Dallas Tastemaker Awards, we're celebrating the prodigious talent in our food and drink community. For months, our editors sifted through nominees before narrowing down the field for a panel of experts who chose winners in nine categories. Those winners will be revealed with great fanfare — and many a toast — at our big event on May 6.

In the past couple of weeks, we've honored the city's top pastry chefs, tipped our hat to the best breweries and lifted our glass to the best bars in town. We even launched a tournament so our readers could help choose the best new restaurant. But perhaps no category is more meaningful than that of best chef.

Unlike the rising stars who are just beginning to make their mark, these candidates are the culinary masters of our city. They've made significant contributions to our local dining scene while staying at the top of their field. They've brought us not only fantastic food but also glory, bragging rights and a sense of hometown pride.

These legendary chefs all have accolades and four-star ratings that would fill a page. Instead of listing their awards and achievements, we'll share a few highlights, including their game-changing moments, signature dishes and what makes them special.

In alphabetical order, we present our candidates for the Tastemaker Award for Best Chef:

Nick Badovinus, Neighborhood Services, Off-Site Kitchen
Game changer: Badovinus left the friendly confines of Consilient and showed his mettle with his successful Neighborhood Services.
Signature dish: Veal schnitzel
What's new: Openings everywhere — a third Neighborhood Services in Addison, an Off-Site Kitchen in Trinity Groves and a new concept called Town Hearth opening in the Design District.
In a nutshell: Nimble and intuitive, Badovinus is a chef with classic roots who's plugged in to restless contemporary diners.

Dean Fearing, Fearing's
Game changer: Leaving the Mansion to open Fearing's in 2007 proved that Dean didn't need the Mansion to be Dean.
Signature dish: Lobster taco
What's new: A cookbook called The Texas Food Bible (Grand Central Publishing), coming out on April 29.
In a nutshell: Intensely charismatic, accessible yet larger-than-life, with a faultless palate, Fearing is a Dallas treasure.

Tim Love, Lonesome Dove, Woodshed Smokehouse, Queenie's Steakhouse, Love Shack, Barter
Game changer: Love's kitchen skills are matched by his ability to spot trends before they happen.
Signature dish: Tomahawk chop
What's new: A TV favorite, his latest show is Esquire Network's Knife Fight.
In a nutshell: Perhaps no chef has a stronger combination of creativity and drive than Love.

Matt McCallister, FT33
Game changer: McCallister's meteoric rise through the ranks at Stephan Pyles led to the opening of his own Design District restaurant.
Signature dish: Smoked potatoes with maitake mushrooms and spicy mayo
What's new: A spot on the list of Food & Wine's 2014 best new chefs.
In a nutshell: McCallister has a preternaturally canny finger on foodie trends.

Kent Rathbun, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen
Game changer: Rathbun opened Abacus in 1999 and thus began a chef-driven mini restaurant empire.
Signature dish: Lobster shooters
What's new: A dramatic refresh of the menu at Jasper's, Rathbun's ode to backyard cuisine.
In a nutshell: Rathbun handily balances the craft of the chef with a business sense.

Raul Reyes, Mesa
Game changer: Reyes transformed his modest La Palapa Veracruzana in Oak Cliff into the fine-dining restaurant that is Mesa.
Signature dish: Enmoladas with mole sauce
What's new: Expansion to Bishop Arts with a seafood restaurant called Ceviche.
In a nutshell: Reyes is our best and most genuine example of the ability to elevate Mexican food into serious cuisine.

Stephan Pyles, Stephan Pyles, Stampede 66, San Salvaje
Game changer: Pyles presciently saw the potential of Dallas' Arts District when he opened his eponymous restaurant in 2005.
Signature dish: Cowboy rib-eye with onion rings
What's new: Pan-Latin restaurant San Salvaje will soon open in the old Samar spot.
In a nutshell: A master of reinvention, Pyles perseveres by finding new ways to capitalize on his well-established classics.

Teiichi Sakurai, Tei An
Game changer: Sakurai's precision has made Tei An and the otherwise-moribund One Arts Plaza a destination.
Signature dish: Soba sampler
What's new: Impromptu Sunday-morning ramen parties that are hugely popular.
In a nutshell: Sakurai's mastery of soba noodles and live seafood puts Tei An in an elite league whose peers are mostly in Japan.

John Tesar, Spoon, Knife
Game changer: Tesar has championed underdog cuisines, from burgers at The Commissary to seafood at Spoon, at exactly the right time and place.
Signature dish: C-vap burger
What's new: A steakhouse, called Knife, opening at Hotel Palomar.
In a nutshell: Colorful and mercurial, Tesar gives us impeccable food with plenty of sparks.

David Uygur, Lucia
Game changer: Uygur's unexpected embrace/interpretation of Italian food brought national attention to Lucia and gave Bishop Arts a chef-driven spot.
Signature dish: Charcuterie with nduja crostini
What's new: Ever-longer waits for a reservation, even years after opening.
In a nutshell: Stoic Uygur is nothing less than an artist, making robust pleasures on the plate.

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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.

Nick Badovinus

Photo by Kevin Marple

Nick Badovinus

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Fair Everywhere

Dallas restaurants get into State Fair spirit with fun and funky fare

Photo is courtesy of Rodeo Goat.

Rodeo Goat's Big Tex Burger is one of of myriad State Fair-style plates found around town in October.

The State Fair of Texas this year introduced the Butter-Dipped Toffee Crunch Nutty Bar, Deep Fried Bourbon Banana Bread, and nearly 40 other wild foods, and plenty of its 2 million-plus visitors will gleefully gobble them up.

Inspired by the annual extravaganza, which runs September 25-October 18, restaurants across Dallas are getting in on the action, offering their own State Fair-themed dishes and specials, from Frito Chili Soufflé and Hot Cheeto elote to funnel cake fries and deep fried churros.

Check out these Dallas restaurants offering State Fair-inspired specials, all of which are available during the run of the fair:

Crown Block
The two-time Michelin recommended restaurant atop Reunion Tower is celebrating The State Fair with a seasonal menu featuring Elote Wagyu Dogs — that’s an ultra-tender beef hot dog fried in Fletcher’s signature batter beneath firm cotija cheese, corn, and cilantro. Crown Block State Fair specials also include the sweet Crown Fair, a dessert made from cotton candy, cinnamon churros, caramel sauce, and deep-fried Oreos topped with powdered sugar, and chocolate sauce. The Cotton Candy Cowboy craft cocktail features Texas whiskey, blackberry, citrus, and, obviously, cotton candy, which you can sip on some 560 feet above the fair, which is about four miles southeast of the dining room.

Lochland's Irish Pub
Irish pub in northeast Dallas is going all out with a list of fair-inspired fare that includes Shepherd’s Balls — Lochland’s signature shepherd's pie rolled into balls and fried — plus foot-long corn dogs, smoked turkey legs, breakfast dogs (breakfast sausage dipped in pancake batter), funnel cake fries, and deep fried churros.

Rodeo Goat
The Texas-born burger chain is bringing back its oversized BIG TEX Burger throughout the fair, featuring an all-beef patty topped with a chicken-fried mashed potato cake, crispy bacon, a fried onion ring, and chorizo gravy for $13.99. It’s going head-to-head with the Honey Bacon Blue burger, an all-beef patty stuffed with blue cheese butter and topped with honey bacon bits, fried kale, and curry mayo. There’s also a seasonal Pumpkin Spice Goat Balls dessert: deep-fried, cheesecake-filled bites coated in pumpkin spice and served with mascarpone dip. Rodeo Goat has 10 locations across Dallas-Fort Worth.

Lucky’s
As one of Oak Lawn's longest-lasting diners, Lucky’s tips its cowboy hat to the Big Tex Award winners of the world, but claims a closer kinship to enduring classics. And the State Fair’s arguably most enduring classic has to be the Corny Dog. Thus the restaurant will offer two State Fair Corn Dogs with fries for $10.99, along with Funnel Cake Ale from Community Brewing for $5.50. Specials run throughout the fair days.

Maple Leaf Diner
North Dallas’ Canadian-themed diner is leaning into the fried-food spirit with a lineup of State Fair-inspired specials. Options include a Buffalo fried cheese curd five-cheese grilled cheese, fried pickles, fried Oreos, and the Carnival Burger — a beef burger topped with a fried block of cheddar and a corn dog skewer. Cotton Candy Mimosa, Churros and Cream Soda, and the returning Maple Bacon Iced Latte round out the cocktail and beverage menu.

Rise No. 1
Of course it's a soufflé. Anything else would be silly here at Dallas’ favorite French restaurant. And Rise's Frito Chili Soufflé is serious, with Texas chili, crunchy Fritos, cheddar, and fresh toppings baked into Rise’s signature airy soufflé. Viva this France and Texas collab. The seasonal special is a returning fair-time favorite.

Flying Fish
This North Texas seafood staple's State Fair-inspired specials include Grits-on-a-Stick and Gumbo — grits deep-fried on skewers and served with seafood gumbo — plus fried alligator nuggets with Papous Comeback Sauce and a Nashville Hot Catfish Sandwich topped with sweet-heat sauce, coleslaw, and pickles.

Bluebonnet and Thyme
After her Wagyu Bacon Cheeseburger Deviled Egg Sliders won Most Creative at last year's State Fair of Texas Big Tex Awards, Chef Kendall Williams opened her own Victory Park restaurant. The award-winning dish is on the menu along with charcuterie nachos, Cajun cream pastas, and more crave-worthy, if heartburn-inducing, dishes. The restaurant, which only opened in August, is in the former Dirty Bones space across from American Airlines Center.

The Stix Icehouse
The sprawling indoor-outdoor entertainment venue in McKinney tends to go Big in the name of Tex, turning its 14-acre property into a mini State Fair, September 25-October 18. Festivities include live entertainment, family activities, and a full menu of fair-inspired food — deep-fried footlong corny dog with queso and BBQ sauce, Frito pie, Hot Cheeto elote, a mac stack burger topped with a fried mac-and-cheese ball, deep-fried Oreos, and funnel cake fries with chocolate and caramel syrup. Bartenders will serve Texas cherry limeade, a cotton candy margarita, and a zero-proof cotton candy lemonade. The month-long celebration culminates October 18 with the fifth annual Good Ol’ Days Fest, featuring pony rides, a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, vendor market, field-day games, and a celebrity dunk tank for a cause.

fried food desserts dining state fair of texas funnel cakes corny dogs state fair food