Cooking With Tre

How to get intimate and hands-on with a Dallas Top Chef contestant

Chef Tre Wilcox is opening an actual brick-and-mortar space.

Photo by Rhi Lee

Chef Tre Wilcox, who became a local celebrity of sorts after his 2007 appearance on Top Chef, has a new venture called Tre Wilcox Cooking Concepts that is occupying an actual brick-and-mortar location at 8200 Preston Rd., right on the edge of Plano and Frisco.

The 3,200-square-food space combines a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen with the intimate touches of a home kitchen. It will serve as a hub for events, catering, team building competitions, and cooking classes where guests can work with Wilcox in a hands-on environment.

After a 20-year career as a restaurant chef, private chef, and TV personality, Wilcox is taking everything he’s learned and applying it to a new setting where he can offer his brand of fun, educational cooking classes:

Hands-on cooking classes. Classes of up to 16 people will participate in making three-course menus. Classes will be offered for adults and children; all ingredients, tools, and recipes will be provided. After the class, attendees are invited to bring a guest and some wine to enjoy their three-course dinner with full-service staff.

Couples cooking classes. Intimate class of no more than 16 people will enjoy a quick interactive cooking demonstration and tasting with Wilcox. Upbeat global music will set the mood, and guests will pair off to prepare three small plates recipes. The three-hour evening session will include cooking instructions by professional chefs, a meal of four small plates, and copies of each recipe.

TRE demonstration classes. "TRE" stands for "Techniques, Recipes, Execution." An intimate, interactive look at cooking with a lesson by Wilcox or a professional guest chef-instructor that might include Top Chef contestants, local celebrity chefs, or nationally known chefs. Four-course menu will include tastings while guests take notes and watch the chef work. BYOB.

Corporate team building. Groups of up to 40 will work together to prepare their own gourmet meal in one of three themes: Family Dinner, Iron Chef Battle, or Market Basket Challenge. The two menu styles offered are a chef-crafted buffet or three-course plated dinner.

The space will also be available for corporate parties and private events, Monday-Saturday, 6-10 pm. The building will be equipped with wireless internet, a plasma screen, and access to other AV needs.

"This is the culmination of two decades of hard work and a love for both cooking and teaching," Wilcox says in a release. "I'm excited to bring Tre Wilcox Cooking Concepts to fruition and to share this vision with the public in a fun and instructional hands-on setting."

openings

Coming soon

Cuban-style burger chain Frita Batidos to make Texas debut in Dallas

Photo by Noah Fecks

Frita Batidos' signature burgers and milkshakes, along with crispy fried plantains.

An acclaimed Cuban-inspired burger restaurant from Michigan is making its Texas debut in in Dallas' buzzy McKinney-Knox neighborhood: Called Frita Batidos, it will open at 4620 McKinney Ave., just off the Katy Trail, on August 17, a release says.

Founded by chef Eve Aronoff Fernandez, Frita Batidos debuted in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2010 and has since expanded to Detroit and Brooklyn. The Brooklyn location earned national attention after its signature Frita was named one of New York City's best burgers by The New York Times.

The restaurant serves Cuban-style street food and takes its name from two Cuban staples that are the focus of its menu: fritas, the island's signature burgers, and batidos, tropical fruit milkshakes.

Their fritas are served on a soft egg bun and topped with shoestring fries. Options include beef, housemade chorizo, chicken, black bean, and Gulf redfish, with toppings such as cilantro-lime salsa, avocado spread, tropical slaw, Muenster cheese, and a sunny-side-up egg.

Frita Baditos Frita, a Cuban-style burger.Photo by Noah Fecks

Their batidos are made with vanilla bean ice cream and fresh fruit in flavors such as coconut cream, passion fruit, fresh lime, hibiscus, chocolate español, and cajeta. Guests can also order a lighter version made with mango, pineapple, and crushed ice, or add a splash of dark rum to any shake.

Other menu highlights include crisped plantains with dipping sauces, loaded plantains topped with black beans and cheese, coconut-ginger rice layered with black beans and Muenster cheese, churros, cinnamon-sugar plantains, and rotating housemade paletas.

The beverage menu features cocktails such as a margarita, mojito, piña colada, daiquiri, sangria, and pisco hibiscus lemonade, along with housemade tropical sodas, fresh juices, and nonalcoholic versions of its cocktails.

"Frita Batidos emphasizes fresh, high-quality, locally sourced ingredients, served with care in a warm and welcoming atmosphere to create a community gathering place," the owners say in the release.

The Dallas restaurant occupies a bright, airy space designed by architect Neal Robinson, a longtime collaborator on the brand's restaurants. The dining room features communal picnic-style tables, outlets for guests who want to work while dining, and dominoes for customers to play. A mural by graffiti artist FEL3000ft emblazoned with the phrase "Por Que No?!" serves as the centerpiece.

Frita Baditos Badito, a tropical milkshake.Photo by Noah Fecks

Frita Batidos founder Aronoff Fernandez is a a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef who previously owned the acclaimed Ann Arbor, Michigan restaurant Eve and authored the cookbook Eve: Contemporary Cuisine/Methode Traditionelle. She founded Frita Baditos in 2010, she says, "grounded in the tenets of the Slow Food Movement, following the seasons, cooking from scratch, working with small, local purveyors and farmers and most importantly fostering warmth and conviviality around food."

Frita Batidos will be open Sunday-Wednesday from 11 am-10 pm and Thursday-Saturday from 11 am-11 pm.

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