As veteran chefs duked it out for top honors at the fourth annual Straits Restaurant Curry Crawl, it was relative newcomer Omar Pereney of Peska Seafood Culture and chef of soon-to-open Pour Society Matthew Lovelace who tied for first place. Pereney wowed judges with his Deconstructed Curry Apple Pie and Lovelace with his Green Chicken Curry with Dumplings.
More than 200 curry fans turned out to vote for their favorite among the spicy contenders that included Commonwealth, Cloud 10 Creamery, Hugs & Donuts, Jonathan’s the Rub, Radio Milano, Spice Runner, The Tasting Room and Woodrow’s Heights. In the end, it was Tasting Room-Uptown chef Brittany Eaden who won the People’s Choice Award for her Red Curry Compressed Beef Short Rib.
Curry Crawl activity, benefiting Spaulding for Children, spread through the CityCentre restaurant and spilled over onto its two patios.
Judging the entries that ranged from ice creams and kolaches to stews and tacos were CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler, Houston Press’ Phaedra Cook, Houston Restaurant Weeks founder and CBS Sport Radio 650’s Cleverley Stone, femme foodie Mai Pham and ABC 13’s Katherine Whaley.
Casting their votes for the People's Choice Award were guests including Candice Taylor, Sam Mendicino, Amy and Adam Johnston, Anyoleth Sanchez, Jake Schiffer, Brad Garner, Lenny Jimenez, Alycia Schramm, Steven Jin, Kourtney Phan and Ben Wu.
Chinese lion mixes it up during the cooking competition.
