Geez, where does one start? More than just a celebrity, Pyles is one of the few truly important chefs in Texas.He is considered one of the pioneering figures in New American cuisine. Along with the likes of Dean Fearing, he invented Southwestern cuisine, one of the feats prompting the James…

“Not so long ago, Dallas was a culinary wasteland, save for its famous barbecue. But in recent years, celebrity chefs like Nobu Matsuhisa, Tom Colicchio and Charlie Palmer have planted their flags in Dallas, joining a fresh crop of hometown talent.” (Luisita Lopez Torregrosa in yesterday’s New York Times travel…

This is a topic the Burning Question crew takes very seriously. Over the years we’ve encountered, with great concern, people who waive off tequila “because it gets me too wasted,” or those warning against brown liquors and the “mean drunks” that ensue–and so on. Yet they make these claims while…

He cooked professionally for six years in Milwaukee before finally taking a break…to study at the Culinary Institute of America.Harloff then headed a string of highly rated restaurants in Wisconsin before heading south. Since arriving in Dallas just over a decade ago, he’s developed quite a legacy, including a “rising…

“I say, if you work behind a bar and serve drinks, call yourself a bartender; it is perfectly descriptive and free of any pretense. Would you call a skilled trash collector a trashologist?” (Andrew Knowlton of Bon Appetit magazine, responding to the precious trend classifying those who shake cocktails as…

He escaped Cuba with his family in 1962, grew up in New Jersey, studied in Chicago and spent the last 30 years here in Dallas–hence Garcia’s convoluted accent.The owner of Hector’s on Henderson wanted to be an actor. But a stint waiting tables turned his career in another direction. Eventually,…

“She got me to step out of my comfort zone, which is as much fun as it is scary.” (Great American SPAM Championship winner Ron Pearman, attributing something–perhaps the inspiration for his winning recipe–to his wife. Either way, fun or scary, his ‘mini SPAM nacho burgers’ are loaded with cheese,…

We all know the story by now, how a Buffalo pub owner took discarded chicken parts, fried them up and rolled them in a sauce composed largely of butter and Tabasco. Within a few years, wings were everywhere–the invention joining those other gifts that city has bestowed upon the world,…

Although his title reads ‘vice president,’ Alexis also serves as janitor, accounts receivable and pretty much everything else at his family’s market.TJ’s Seafood Market has been a haven for fresh fish lovers over the past two decades–not bad in a city otherwise known for fickle shopping behavior. Aside from flying…

“Lasagna is America’s most popular pasta dish, so it was a natural addition to our line of Tuscani Pastas. Americans have eagerly embraced the concept of delivery pasta over the past year, catapulting Pizza Hut to become the undisputed category leader.” (Scott Bergren, Pizza Hut’s chief concept officer–a great title,…

You may know her as an Olympic silver medalist, but the 24 year-old skating superstar had already raked in a good portion of the world’s precious metal supply thanks to podium finishes at, oh, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the World Championships, the U.S. Nationals, Skate Canada, Skate America…Cohen also…

“Pimento cheese is so ingrained in the lives of many Southerners that we don’t realize our passion for the stuff doesn’t exist outside the region. Call me provincial, but I was shocked (shocked!) when I learned that everyday people from Boston to San Diego don’t slap pimento cheese on bread…

Yet another “warning” was issued last week about obesity in America, this time zeroing in on Texan waistlines in a report authored by a demographer named Karl Eschbach, sponsored by the Texas Health Institute and announced to the public by state senator Jane Nelson of Flower Mound–who said  in not…

As Winn Meats corporate executive chef, you’d expect Samford to know his brisket, his steak…hell, anything carved, cured or barbecued. Before stepping into this role, he developed Central Market’s “fresh market” concept in Dallas, so he’s well versed in the corporate world. But he trained first with Stephan Pyles then Dean…

“I am not an Obama supporter. Could never be, and as much as having an African-American in the White House could be a good thing, having one with Marxist ideals is certainly not a good thing! I will not be patronizing your restaurant,  much less the ‘Obama Room.'” (Patron–make that…

Actually, this question came to us as your basic “who will win the Super Bowl” sort of thing, presumably hoping for some insight from our crew’s most recent has-been athlete. (See photo). But we’re charged with covering the food scene. And since an incident last week–of which we have no…

Although not a sports fan at all, she tends bar at Frankie’s, a sports bar in Uptown featuring some 40 screens–38 regular flat ones and a couple of the big monsters.Of course, Sunday is a big day for the city’s sports bars, what with Arizona getting ready to crush Pittsburgh…

“We don’t have a good idea right now in terms of how much of that product is still out there; it may have largely been consumed.” (Stephen Sundlof of the FDA after the government extended a recall of peanut products produced by the Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, GA, plant…

For a chef now dedicated to “upscaled” Southern cooking, Dodd trained in some unusual settings.Before opening the acclaimed Screen Door in One Arts Plaza, he learned the gumbo trade at Brennan’s in Houston, worked alongside Southwestern pioneer Stephan Pyles, played with all the toys money–and Voltaire–could buy, and so on…

“I know that somewhere in the universe exists my perfect soul mate. But looking for her is much more difficult than just staying at home and ordering another pizza.” (Attributed to ‘Alf Whitt’–which sounds suspiciously like halfwit–on a press release distributed yesterday by Boston’s pizza)…