Meal Of A Lifetime

The meal of a lifetime? No. 2 restaurant in the world wows VIPs in its 14-course road show Houston dinner

"What are your expectations for tonight," celebrity chef Ingrid Hoffmann asked me. We were standing just outside Rienzi in River Oaks between the tents housing the makeshift kitchen and the ballroom that would serve as the first stop on the world tour that had brought brothers Joan, Jordi and Josep Roca from Spain's celebrated restaurant El Celler de Can Roca to Houston.

"I hope it's one of the best meals of my life," I told her. Considering that El Celler is currently ranked the No. 2 restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine, that seemed like a pretty reasonable expectation. It's that status and the brothers' celebrity that motivated bank BBVA to enlist the Roca brothers to close their restaurant for five weeks to embark on the four-country, six-city tour.

"I think it will be," Hoffmann replied.

The meal began, as one supposes all Spanish meals should, with a generous serving of utterly luxurious jamón ibérico ham that was sliced from a whole leg. Utterly decadent, it was the only bite that offered a taste of Spain. From there, chef Joan Roca and his team of cooks who traveled to Houston from Girona, along with assistants from a local catering company and local chefs Ruben and Hugo Ortega (Hugo's, Caracol, etc) would present their version of flavors familiar to any Houstonian.

Those expecting fancy foams or unusual presentations may have been disappointed, but everyone at my table cleaned their plates.

As Roca explained during a visit to Houston in May, memory and traditions influence much of the way the brothers think about food and dining. It was not surprising, then, to find them playing with diners' expectations throughout the 18-dish, 14-course meal open to invited guests only.

In order to protect the paintings in the Rienzi ballroom, the first course, shrimp steamed with tequila flavor, was served on a patio overlooking the pool. Sure enough, the sweet shrimp contained a bit of a tequila bite and made the air around the cooking station smell like the potent potable.

As the 100 guests moved to the ballroom for the meal, we sat down in front of a menu that listed all 18 dishes (including the shrimp) along with a simple dinner roll. The first dish, dubbed The World, brought five small bites designed to represent the four countries of the tour. A corn fritter filled with a spot-on take on classic barbecue sauce represented Texas.

The series of small bites continued with a margarita bonbon — the sweet, tart liquid filled my mouth as soon as I pressed my tongue against the thin candy shell. A "liquid tortilla" contained a warm rush of chicken tinga —again, familiar flavors presented in an unexpected fashion.

As the meal moved efficiently into individually plated courses, I heard myself say things like "eat your jalapeno ice cream before it melts" and answering questions like "Why does my fish remind me of pancakes?" In the first instance, jalapeno ice cream provided a spicy kick to a liquid salad. In the second, sea bass came with "pancake sauce" and pecans, along with two spicy salsas that wouldn't have tasted out of place on a taco truck.

The savory portion of the meal concluded with a piece of pork belly in which crispy skin gave way to juicy meat and a thin, flavorful layer of fat and a thinly-sliced veal shank flavored with cinnamon and coriander. They were simple, beautifully prepared dishes that spoke to the quality of their ingredients. Those expecting fancy foams or unusual presentations may have been disappointed, but everyone at my table cleaned their plates.

Pastry chef Jordi Roca served two courses. The first, named Lemon Cloud, took its inspiration from a perfume, a sample of which was passed around to diners via paper cups. Sure enough, the flavors of the dessert and the perfume's scent matched up — a mix of floral and citrus elements. Thanks to the different components each bite tasted a little different than the one before.

These courses are the antidote to overly severe tastings and the pretentious foodies who fly around the world to devour them.

Dinner concluded with "Dairy Dessert," a cotton candy-style wisp dulce de leche atop ice cream. It was ethereal and sweet and light enough to bring the meal to a fitting close.

These courses are the antidote to overly severe tastings and the pretentious foodies who fly around the world to devour them. This meal was fun to eat and, despite the crowd and unfamiliar setting, permeated by a sense of hospitality throughout. Courses arrived quickly one table at a time. They disappeared quickly too, with only new silverware left to mark their departure. Despite the number of dishes, the whole experience only last about two-and-a-half hours.

Had a question about a wine? One of the sommeliers, including Josep Roca, was happy to come over and describe it. Even water glasses stayed full.

At the end, the lucky diners stood and applauded. The three brothers bowed.

One of the best meals of my life? Certainly so.

Liquid tortilla of chicken tinga.

Dinner by Roca brothers at Rienzi house August 2014

Photo by Eric Sandler

Liquid tortilla of chicken tinga.

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eat real food

Houston DJ-turned-TikTok star cooks up a cult following one recipe at a time

Courtesy of Uncle Dibbz

Uncle Dibbz, a.k.a. A.H. Bowden, has built a devoted following for his viral recipes.

For the past month, Uncle Dibbz has been, shall we say, going ham on social media with the myriad videos of alternative Thanksgiving dishes. He’s dropped how-to clips for such recipes as Cajun-roasted turkey, honey-baked ham/hens, oven-bag turkey, and six-piece fried turkey (to go). Basically, if you don’t want to cook a bland ol’ Butterball this Turkey Day, Dibbz has you covered.

Who is Dibbz, you say? Well, he’s a North Jersey-born, Georgia-bred, Houston-based chef who’s been building quite the foodie rep online. Several videos across his TikTok, Instagram and YouTube pages, from his Cajun-boiled fried chicken (2 million on IG) to his “Propose to Me Pasta” (12.3 million on TikTok), has amassed millions of views. But Dibbz (government name: A.H. Bowden) wasn’t always a culinary content creator. He used to spin music back in Atlanta as DJ DiBiase, named after retired wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase. “DiBiase is a mouthful to say, so people just always call me ‘D’ or ‘Dibbz’ for short,” says Bowden, 37, during a Zoom interview.

@uncledibbz PROPOSE To Me PASTA 💍 🍝 Trust your Uncle! This SEAFOOD Pasta will seal the deal 👌🏽 Get my recipe below ⬇️ or on uncledibbz.com [@uncledibbz Link in Bio] 🌐 **Ingredients:** - 8 ounces spaghetti - 1 lb mixed seafood (shrimp, scallops, crab meat, etc.) - 2 tablespoons olive oil - Fresh chopped basil - 2 cloves garlic, minced - 1/2 cup white wine - 1/4 cup heavy cream - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter - Salt and pepper to taste - Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust [link in bio] - Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish) - Grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish) **Instructions:** 1. Cook the spaghetti pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Drain and set aside. 2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, chopped basil and sauté for about 1 minute until fragrant. 3. Add the mixed seafood to the skillet. Season with Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust to taste and cook for 2-3 minutes until cooked through. Remove the seafood from the skillet and set aside. 4. Pour in the white wine to the skillet and let it simmer for 2 minutes, allowing the alcohol to cook off. 5. Stir in the heavy cream, butter, Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. 6. Add the cooked spaghetti and cooked mixed seafood to the skillet. Toss everything together until well coated with the sauce. 7. Remove from heat and garnish with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. 8. Serve hot and enjoy the flavorful Seafood Spaghetti. That's good Shawty! #UncleDibbz #ThatsGoodShawty #Pasta #marryme #proposal #bride #wife #husband #relationshipgoals #datenight #easyrecipe #seafood #cajun #cooking #fyp #foryou #viral #houston ♬ original sound - Uncle Dibbz 🍴

He was making a nice living as a DJ, even serving as rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s touring DJ for a while. But when the pandemic hit, the gigs obviously dried up.

“I was living in Miami at the time,” he says. “And, you know, when you have a lot of time on your hands to think – but also need to figure out a way to, you know, sustain an income and everything like that – the ideas start coming,”

Like most DJs at that time, he was doing live mixes on Instagram. But his days throwing cookout parties in Atlanta inspired him to start doing his cooking videos, where he used his very own seasoning. Of course, he had a lemon pepper blend, which he used in a lemon pepper hot wings video that currently has over a half-million views on TikTok.

“I'm about to go live to DJ later that night, and my phone was just going off with orders,” he recalls. “So I'm like, where are these orders coming from? And it's not from my friends. I'm seeing the cities and the states. I don't know these people.”

Thanks to his videos, which usually end with him saying his signature line “That’s good shawty!” (that’s also the name of his cookbook he released last year), Dibbz went into the seasoning business full time. He eventually hired another person to help send out the piles of orders he was receiving.

He even got an order from former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, one of his favorite athletes. “I remember doing a book report on him when I was in fourth grade,” he boasts.

Although Dibbz has a flair for making meals that border on decadent, he’s an ardent practitioner of cooking with natural ingredients, especially in his seasoning. He has several low-sodium seasoning, including Bebe’s Salt Free – named after his mother, who had open-heart surgery a few weeks before the pandemic started.

“I don't think a lot of people understand the amount of toxins and chemicals that go into a lot of these seasonings,” he says. “You're starting to see it in the news now. A lot of the foods with certain dyes are being taken off the shelves and things like that.’

Soon, Dibbz moved himself and his new business to Houston, a favorite place to perform as well as a town whose hip-hop got him into music. He cites local chopped-and-screwed gods DJ Screw, Michael 5000 Watts, and OG Ron C as his holy trinity of influences. To give props to the music of his new home, he created a hot sauce – called HXT Sauce – whose uncharacteristically large bottle resembles Promethazine cough syrup (aka the key ingredient in lean, the preferred purple cocktail for the city’s rap community).

“It's not necessarily about promoting that usage,” he says. “But, at the same time, it’s just a homage to one of the factors and influences of screwed-and-chopped music.”

Dibbz still indulges in spinning records from time to time. The Waxaholics’ DJ Big Reeks has gotten him to break out the vinyl a few times during his Thursday-night sets at Alley Kat Bar & Lounge in Midtown. But creating new recipes, dropping delicious content and proving you can eat and live in a hearty, healthy fashion still remains his full-time mission.

“I’m not just talking about eating cauliflower rice all day and every day, but just eat real food,” he says. “We're eating fake food. That's the bottom line. We're eating fake food and my whole purpose is to inspire people to eat real food and that starts with real ingredients, real herbs, you know – real natural seasonings.”

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