Pizza News

Old-school mom-and-pop serves NY-style pizza at Dallas' Preston Center

Just what the neighborhood needed.

Yonkers

There's a new pizzeria in Dallas' Preston Center doing it New York style. Called Yonkers Pizza Company, it's located at 8421 Westchester Dr., in a former Jamba Juice, where they're serving pizza with Jimmy's Sausage, garlic knots, and pizza by the slice.

Owner Tony Avezzano has a claim to fame beyond opening a pizza place (which is surely heroic on its own): His father Joe Avezzano worked for the Dallas Cowboys for 14 years as a special teams coach.

His father wanted to do a project with Tony so they bought a sports bar in Lewisville called Hat Tricks. Tony's father died in 2012 and he sold Hat Tricks in 2014, and has since worked as a booking artist at places like Lava Cantina.

"At the beginning, Hat Tricks had your typical bar food, but it evolved to where we started taking the food more seriously," Tony says. "My mom is a phenomenal cook and I love the food scene in Dallas, and just wanted to do better."

They added pasta and pizza, fashioning it after what Tony saw was being done in New York. He developed a recipe which ended up earned a following; it serves as the basis for what he's doing at Yonkers.

"I'm hesitant to say it's New York pizza, but it is that style," he says. "It's our own dough recipe, which we ferment overnight. The pizza is thin in the middle with a crust around outside that's crispy."

They sell their pizza two ways: a large 18-inch pie or by the slice, with straightforward and traditional toppings - but toppings that are good, like the famed Jimmy's sausage, from Jimmy's Food Store in Dallas.

They also serve sandwiches and meatballs from his mother's recipes - "they're the size of your fist," he says - as well as meatball sliders and garlic knots. They don't serve alcohol but they do have a signature grape KoolAid.

Tony is hoping to serve a need in a neighborhood that is lacking.

"I knew I wanted to do pizza by the slice, and Preston Center has the foot traffic," he says. "And in that neighborhood, there is not an abundance of old school mom-and-pop pizza places like us."

pizza

Chef News

Culinary program at Lancaster High School mints chefs in the making

Facebook

Lancaster ISD culinary program students with chef Dean Fearing

A Dallas-area high school culinary program is racking up awards and top-notch expertise and food trucking all around campus: Lancaster High School, whose culinary program has been elevating students’ cooking skills over the past year with cooking competitions and a brand new food truck.

Chef LaTina Dawn, who leads the program, took charge as culinary arts teacher in the career and technical education (CTE) department in 2016. Dawn has helped expand the program — previously exclusive to 10th-12th graders — to ninth graders at the Barack and Michelle Obama Ninth Grade Center. Lisa Bray and Kymberlye Hunt assist Dawn with the classes, which have a combined 200 students enrolled.

Dawn, dubbed Chef D by her students, went to culinary school at El Centro College before obtaining her masters in education at Grand Canyon University in Arizona. Teaching in the classroom and kitchen just fell into place for her.

“I come from a long line of chefs in the family, so I did know that I wanted to cook and work with youth, but I didn’t know how I wanted both of those to connect,” Dawn says. “Then I went to culinary school and realized that as a leader in culinary school, I like to teach.”

The curriculum, which runs the full school year, features four levels, including introduction to culinary arts, foundations of restaurant management, food science, and two practicums. Aside from cooking dishes like Indian butter chicken, steaks, and barbecued and grilled meats, students also learn hospitality and catering.

BBQ is a big deal in the program, especially ribs and brisket. This year, a team of students participated in the HS BBQ competition, which features high school BBQ teams across Texas competing for a state title.

Lancaster ISD food truckLancaster ISD

In September, the district acquired its first food truck, which serves Lancaster ISD staff and students. There's no set menu, but dishes range from BBQ to tacos.

The program has caught the attention of well-known food & beverage figures such as chef Dean Fearing, who paid them a visit in October ("Wow - I had no idea that this school had such a fantastic culinary arts program! The culinary classes learned how to make BBQ Shrimp Tacos and did a top notch job!" Fearing said); and Breakfast Brothers owner Rickey Booker, who featured winners of the Student Chopped competition on his CW33 show In the Kitchen with the Breakfast Brothers.

"I would say out of all the students, about 60 percent have gone on to work at local restaurants and or start their own business," she says. "A few restaurants that they have worked at are Raising Canes, Bojangles, Braum's, and Chili's."

Students have attended culinary programs at Dallas College, University of Houston, and University of North Texas in Denton; they've also been accepted for scholarships at Escoffier in Austin and The Culinary Institute of America.

"The biggest takeaway is to see students that were afraid to step into the culinary world go out and excel in their own culinary businesses, which I've had several do," Dawn says. "From competing in competitions when at first you couldn't even get them to say 'hi' in the classrooms, that's what culinary does. You can put a plate of food in front of someone and take them into a different world."

schools chefs