Special Meals

Peace, love, and gourmet food: Collaborative dinners are all the rage in Houston

A collaborative dinner is a veritable Foodstock for chefs and diners alike:Peace, love and gourmet food.
Pastry chef Rebecca Masson adds a little philanthropy to the concept. Every fewmonths, Masson corrals an impressive array of culinary talents for acollaborative charity dinner.
Courtesy photo
Red snapper crudo from Seth Siegel-Gardner and Justin Yu at last year's JustAugust Project
Photo by Ruthie Johnson Miller
A fantastically rich Forest mushroom shooter with soy from David Coffman ofBenjy's at a collaborative vegan dinner
Photo by Ruthie Johnson Miller
Seth Siegel-Gardner collaborates with Manabu Horiuchi in the Kata Robata kitchenthese days to fantastic results.
Photo by Ruthie Johnson Miller
Van Weldon of Wood Duck Farm brings in guest chefs to create fabu-freshcollaborative dinners.
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There’s something in the air around Houston these days, and it’s not just ragweed. It’s the spirit of culinary camaraderie and collaboration in the form of a special kind of meal.

I’m talking about collaborative dinners — creative, multi-course meals featuring a variety of contributors: Chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, mixologists, baristas, and distributors. What’s so great about them? It’s simple — the kitchens sing with jaw-droppingly creative dishes and drinks, and the diners benefit from the good-natured culinary one-upmanship.

Collaborative dinners are not a new concept, per se, but rose sharply in popularity last year. There was the Lazy Summer Repast featuring chefs from Chez Roux, Bootsie’s, and the Just 8 Project. Shortly after that came the 10/10/10 dinner: 10 courses and 10 drink pairings from Seth Siegel-Gardner, Justin Yu, and David Buehrer at Paulie’s. Beaver’s once offered a vegan dinner, and more recently teamed up with Petrol Station on a few offerings. And dozens of other places are getting in on the action. It’s a veritable Foodstock for chefs and diners alike: Peace, love, and gourmet food.

Justin Yu, a pioneer at last year’s Just August Project, says that “Chefs and collaborators really bring it during these dinners. You'll probably see a lot of food chefs might be afraid to do in their own restaurants, or can't do because of price.” Yu is set to offer his own collaborative dinner this weekend. The food will be inspired from his recent apprenticeships in Denmark, France, and Belgium, while the brews will be selected by Justin Vann, Central Market’s beer and wine manager.

Carlos Rodriguez, concept chef at Vic & Anthony’s, likes to design deliciously decadent meals in collaboration with various regional breweries. Over the past few months, he’s spearheaded dinners with Stone Brewing, Brew Dog, and Lefthand Brewing, and oftentimes includes guest chefs like Ryan Hildebrand and Rebecca Masson.

The affable Rodriguez loves the challenge of designing an innovative menu with new flavors. He also says that the dinners are “a great way to draw new people to our venue, people that might not otherwise come in. Plus, they give me a great chance to learn from chefs that have different styles and use different techniques.” You’ll certainly want to check out Rodriguez's next beer event, an uber-enticing April 8th dinner featuring Real Ale Brewing.

Pastry chef Rebecca Masson adds a little philanthropy to the concept. Every few months Masson corrals an impressive array of culinary talents for a collaborative charity dinner. The next event — on April 10 — is a seven-course doozy with Seth Siegal-Gardner (Kata Robata), Ryan Pera (Revival Market), Matt Marcus (Eatsie Boys), Jason Gould (Cyclone Anaya’s), Philip Speer (Uchi/Uchiko), Chris Leung (Bootsie’s), and Masson herself. A few tickets are still available — the $75 includes a donation to Lucky Dog Rescue.

Masson has multiple reasons for organizing these dinners: “First of all, I love being able to give back. Lucky Dog has an incredible mission — I wish I could adopt all of their dogs, but I can’t. So I do the next best thing and help them raise the funds they need. Second, I love working with the different chefs. It's hard for us to hang out because we’re all so busy. So it's super fun to be in the kitchen together.” Their love and laughter, combined with their serious kitchen expertise, makes for some incredibly harmonious dishes.

Even Van Weldon, the plucky owner of Wood Duck Farm, has been bringing in guest chefs — like Justin Basye, L.J. Wiley, Justin Yu, and Seth Siegel-Gardner — to create fabu-fresh collaborative dinners. Meals are held right there on the farm using all of the fantastic local bounty, and often include a hay ride to boot! The next dinner is slated for April 2, with Jon Buchanan of Trevisio.

Ready to experience the peace, love, and gourmet food for yourself? There are still seats available at most of the dinners mentioned above — or follow your favorite chefs and restaurants on Twitter for their latest announcements. At around $75-$85 per person, these meals usually don't come cheap, but they offer a fun, fantastical, once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience.

Just another reason to love that air in Houston.

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NY Times names pioneering Houston restaurant to 'greatest Mexican' list

Photo by Julie Soefer Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau

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The New York Times included four Texas restaurants on its list of “41 of the Greatest Mexican Restaurants Across the United States.” Published Thursday, August 13, the Texas restaurants on the list are:

Burnt Bean Co., a barbecue restaurant in Seguin
Garcia’s Mexican Food, a Tex-Mex diner in San Antonio
Hugo’s, an interior Mexican restaurant in Houston
Nixta Taqueria, a creative taco concept in Austin

Mostly written by James Beard Award-winning food writers Brett Anderson and Bill Esparza, the duo “visited dozens of Mexicans restaurants across the country over the course of a year” to compile the list, the Times explains.

“This list is not an attempt to rank the best Mexican restaurants,” the duo write. “It is, rather, a mosaic of great places to eat, from food trucks to corner restaurants to tasting-menu counters. We hope it tells an expansive story about Mexican cooking in America today — a dynamic cuisine all its own, and as American as any food.”

As Texas Monthly’s No. 1 ranked barbecue joint, Burnt Bean Co. is already well known for its smoked meats, but the Times also hails its Mexican cuisine, which includes its signature Sunday morning menu with menudo, barbacoa tacos, and brisket huevos rancheros.

“You could call it Tex-Mex barbecue, but it’s just how barbecue is eaten in a state whose Mexican border is more than 1,200 miles long,” Anderson writes

Founded in 1962, Anderson hails Garcia’s for its consistency, affordability, and pioneering combination of smoked brisket tacos. “Garcia’s is what an idealized American diner looks like in this part of the country: housemade salsas, tortillas instead of toast and plates of nourishing food at prices that explain why some customers visit multiple times a day,” he writes.

The article credits Hugo’s for introducing the city’s diners to a deeper understanding of the breadth of Mexican cuisine. “Aged into a fine-dining lion in the cradle of Tex-Mex, Hugo’s still features longtime staples like banana leaf-wrapped cabrito, grilled octopus and sautéed chapulines, not to mention mezcals and Mexican wine,” Anderson writes.

“I’m so glad I took a risk taking that train to Houston and, eventually, opening Hugo’s,” Ortega said in response to CultureMap’s request for comment about being included on the list. “I had no idea how it would turn out, I just knew was it was the food that I grew up eating and it was different than what I was seeing in Houston at the time. It was – and is – the food of my heart, my family, my ancestors. The foundation of Mexican cuisine is making everything from scratch which is what we continue to do every day at Hugo’s, and at our other concepts, too. I am humbled and thankful.”

Operated by Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi, Nixta has drawn lines of Austinites eager for its creative spin on tacos, which includes Asian ingredients such as fish sauce and furikake, as well as a dessert that nods to Mardanbigi’s Persian heritage.

“The reservations-only tasting menu, served Thursday through Saturday, further showcases the couple’s stunning creativity and ambition,” writer Priya Krishna notes. “But most of the time Nixta remains what it always has been: a counter taquería of the utmost excellence.”

Of course, knowing that the list isn’t a ranking makes it easier to understand the decision to pick Hugo’s as Houston’s representative — both for its historical significance and continued excellence. If Anderson and Esparza had decided to seek out a newer option, they could have considered restaurants such as, Michelin-starred Mexican tasting menu concept Tatemó; Modern Mexican-American restaurant Belly of the Beast, which is led by James Beard Award-winning chef Thomas Bille; Maximo, which is led by James Beard Award-winning chef Adrian Torres; or Casaema, the breakfast and lunch concept that earned a spot on the Times’ list of its favorite dishes of 2024.

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