Chef News

Meet the 10 chefs who are the rising stars of Dallas' 2024 dining scene

Carbone Dallas

Courtesy of Carbone

Awards season is underway with the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, our annual event honoring the best in Dallas food and drink.

In the coming weeks, we'll spotlight nominees in all categories of food and beverage, culminating in a celebratory party at The Fashion Industry Gallery on May 16.

Nominees and winners are determined by a panel of industry experts, including past winners, in the following categories: Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Bar of the Year, Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year, Pastry Chef of the Year, Bartender of the Year, Best New Restaurant, Rising Star Chef of the Year, Best Wine Program, and Best Patio.

You can see all of the nominees here and learn more about them in a special editorial series, leading up to the big event on May 16, when we’ll unveil the winners, including Best New Restaurant, the only category that gets determined by readers in a bracket-style online tournament.

Tickets for the event are on sale now, with a limited number of Early Bird tickets on sale at discounted rates of $60 for general admission and $99 for VIP (includes early access to the event, valet, and a dedicated bar). Prices increase March 31.

For our first category, we present Rising Star Chefs. These are the up-and-comers, the chefs who are newly established in their own kitchens or restaurants, or who've made local waves for their food.

Meet the nominees for Rising Star Chef of the Year:

Austin Brown, North Italia
Brown earned a degree in culinary arts at Scottsdale Community College, and is a longtime veteran of Fox Restauant Group, the Arizona-based group from restaurateur Sam Fox, having worked at Doughbird, the chicken concept, as well as North Italia, where he's worked at locations in Denver, Dallas, and Plano.

Balpreet Singh Chadha, Sanjh
Chadha, who helms the kitchen at the deluxe Indian restaurant in Irving, has worked at hotels and restaurants in India, United Arab Emirates, and Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain. Fluent in India's many cuisines, he's worked at acclaimed Indian restaurants such as Masala Kraft and Dakshin, and was recognized by Conde Nast Traveler India in their 2023 “40 Under 40: India’s most exciting young chefs” list.

Earnest Morgan, Earnest’s BBQ
Earnest and his wife Cicely owned and operated five barbecue restaurants in Mississippi before coming to Dallas, where they first launched Earnest's as a food truck. In addition to a passion for smoking meats, Morgan has a passion for meeting people. He's a pastor who attended bible college and who "preaches" the gospel of BBQ in how-to classes.

John Pineda, Crown Block
Pineda joined Crown Block, the steak and seafood restaurant in Reunion Tower, as executive chef when it opened in April 2023. Born and raised in Nueva Ecija province in the Philippines, he came to the U.S. at age 15 and moved to Louisiana. His prior experience in Texas food & beverage includes stints with SER Steak & Spirits, Town Hearth Steakhouse, and the acclaimed Launderette in Austin. He's a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, where he earned his associate's degree in culinary arts.

Johney Han, Good Graces
Han is a DFW native who fled the corporate world for food & beverage, attending culinary school in New York, then working with chefs such as David Bouley and Gordon Ramsay, including Maze by Gordon Ramsay inside The London Hotel. He was most recently executive chef at the Ritz-Carlton Central Park, then returned to Texas where he still has family, to head up this modern American brasserie at the Marriott Dallas Uptown, where he's focused on seasonality and shared plates.

Lan Nickens, Chamberlain's Steakhouse
Chef Nickens worked his way up through the ranks of kitchens in Texas and Florida, for organizations such as Club Corp. He was in the kitchen at Tramontana, a now-closed bistro in Highland Park, when he was lured away by Chamberlain's Steak & Chop House owners Richard Chamberlain and Jeff Barker. He's worked with chef Chamberlain for 18 years, winning awards from KRLD Restaurant Week and the Dallas Food and Wine Rising Star Chef Event.

Robert Cortez, The Finch
Cortez has worked at a number of acclaimed local spots, many New American with a Southern influence, such as Tillman's Roadhouse, Small Brew Pub, and CBD Provisions, alongside names like Misty Norris, Tony Ibarra, Nick Walker, and Anthony Bombaci. Prior to joining The Finch, he was with Apheleia Restaurant Group at Hawthorn, PakPao Thai, and Wits Steakhouse. A native of Waxahachie, he's dedicated to mentoring young chefs, as well.

Tony France, Ritz Carlton Las Colinas
France is a Los Angeles native whose Sicilian grandfather gave him a love of cooking. He attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena and worked in luxury hotels in Marina del Rey, Palm Desert, and Santa Barbara. He's the first new head of the kitchen at the newly revamped Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas in more than two decades, and oversees the property's four restaurants and bars, private dining, in-room dining, and banquet operations.

Travis Wyatt, Mirador
Wyatt has worked at highly visible restaurants in Texas and Florida, including the Front Room at the Lumen Hotel, the French Room at the Adolphus, and Filament, the Matt McAllister restaurant in Deep Ellum. He was part of the team when Mirador first opened in 2017, and worked at Queso Beso, another Headington property, before joining chef Junior Borges at The Village, where he was executive sous chef at Meridian. He returned to the Headington family to reopen Mirador in late 2023.

Will Salisbury, Carbone
Salisbury is a New England native whose life and culinary travels have taken him from Nantucket to Europe to New Orleans. He worked with famed chef John Besh at NOLA restaurants such as Domenica, as well as the acclaimed Cochon. He came to Dallas to join Bruno Davaillon at Bullion, where he worked right through a bout with cancer. He joined Major Food Group in fall 2021 as chef de cuisine at Carbone, their grandly mounted Italian restaurant in the Design District, with a cuisine that resonates deeply for Salisbury, whose heritage is Italian-American.

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Eco Warrior News

Dallas restaurants doing amazing little things for the environment

Southwest Airlines

Cute bamboo cup from Southwest Airlines

One unfortunate legacy left by the pandemic has been a huge increase in the use of plastics — setting back progress that was being made pre-pandemic.

Plastics are bad. They harm everything they touch: the environment, health, food security, and economies. But they're convenient, subsidized, and in some cases necessary.

Before the pandemic, a growing awareness had started to snowball regarding the negative impact of plastics, particularly plastic straws and single-use plastic containers — and it was significant enough to make the plastics industry very nervous.

"In the two years leading up to the pandemic, the public backlash against plastic was a major concern for industry leaders," says a story about plastics and the pandemic in The Guardian. "As a corporate executive remarked during an industry event early in 2019: 'We need to get the image of plastic in oceans out of the public’s mind. Otherwise, we could lose our social license to operate.'"

But then the pandemic came along, igniting mass hysteria about contagion, and suddenly, bans on single-use plastics that had been in the works were reversed in countries around the world: North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

“Overnight, plastics went from public enemy No. 1 to consumers asking for everything to have as much packaging as possible and to be single use," said one gleeful analyst for Shell Oil, who are a major plastics player.

The urgency of the plastics situation remains invisible to most people, lined up at the drive-thru for their coffee or Chick-Fil-A, piling up nearly 250 pounds of plastic waste every year. (That's what the average American amasses — more than any other country.)

But there are brave, pro-environment efforts being made by Dallas companies and organizations, big and small.

La Casita Bakeshop cup Revolutionary compostable cup at La Casita Bakeshop.Facebook

Dallas efforts
The Dallas restaurants and organizations listed below have taken steps to fight waste, even though it costs them money.

Plastic Free Lunch Day is November 22
Dallas ISD’s Food and Child Nutrition Services will participate in Plastic Free Lunch Day on November 22, to help reduce the amount of single-use plastic in school cafeterias.

Plastic Free Lunch Day was started by middle school students in Brooklyn. The initiative was such a success that it was adopted by all New York City public schools in 2022. The concept has since spread to public schools across the country — including Dallas ISD, which was the first in Texas to participate, when it joined up in 2022.

It creates an opportunity to educate students and the community on ways to positively impact the environment, including skipping plastic. Dallas school cafeterias will replace the plastic items they regularly use during lunch with biodegradable alternatives. (Plastic cutlery, cups, and straws will be available upon request for the crybabies.)

Southwest Airlines bamboo cup
Southwest Airlines Co., the Dallas-based airline, has introduced a new bamboo cup for inflight cold beverages, and a wood stir stick in place of a plastic stick. The airline expects the new items to reduce its inflight single-use plastics by more than 1.5 million pounds annually.

In July 2024, Southwest transitioned to a paper overwrap for its napkins made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled materials — fully eliminating plastic from this service item. The airline is making an effort to eliminate single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030.

La Casita Bakeshop compostable cups
La Casita Bakeshop, the award-winning bakery and cafe operation, recently debuted fabulous new cups that are 100 percent compostable, soil- and marine-biodegradable, breaking down naturally after 90 days. and are made from natural materials.

"We are always trying to find ways to be more environmentally friendly and this is a big way we can," they said in their post announcing the new cups. "We just want to be proud of our paper trail and being a restaurant it's hard to do that."

Smoothie King biodegrable cups
Smoothie King, the Dallas-based smoothie chain, previously used styrofoam cups, but began testing a biodegradable cup in 2019. They now offer it as the default choice. They're using Vio Foam, specially made cups that biodegrade 92 percent in four years. They'll still accommodate whiny selfish customers who insist on getting a plastic cup instead, but their Vio foam cup not only helps the environment, it also keeps their smoothies cold a little longer.

Kate Weiser Recycle Box Program
Kate Weiser, the Dallas chocolatier, sells its gorgeous eye-catching bon-bons in a variety of boxes, from 4 pieces all the way up to 35 pieces. (OK, they'll sell them individually, too, but who goes to a chocolate shop and buys a single chocolate?) They have a program where you can bring your empty box to the store and get a refill and get 5 percent off. (Weiser amusingly calls it a "secret hack.")

Dude Sweet Chocolate freezer packaging
Dude Sweet Chocolate, the Oak Cliff chocolatier, has a next-level campaign in which they will accept cold-ship packaging you've received in the mail and re-use it. Say, for example, that you ordered an 8-pack of ice cream pints from Double Rainbow in San Francisco, and it arrived in a box with freezer packs and a foil liner. You can drop that packaging off at Dude Sweet's factory location at 1340 Inwood Rd., and they'll re-use it in one way or another when they're doing shipments of their chocolate.

Note: Whether you're putting it in the blue bin or the gray bin, your plastic is not being recycled. The best course when it comes to plastic, especially single-use plastic, is to not use it at all.

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