Hugo Ortega Wins!

Sixth time's the charm: Hugo Ortega wins James Beard Award as Best Chef Southwest

San Francisco Nativity Academy Luncheon, 6/16, Hugo Ortega, Tracy Vaught

Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught.

Photo by Priscilla Dickson

No more calling Hugo Ortega the Susan Lucci of the James Beard Best Chef: Southwest award. In his sixth year as a finalist, Ortega, the chef-owner of Backstreet Cafe, Hugo’s, Caracol, and Xochi, finally followed through on Bum Phillip’s famous promise to kick the son of a bitch in.

Ortega’s victory at Monday night's ceremony in Chicago means that three out of the last four winners of the award, considered to be the Oscars of the American culinary community, have come from Houston. He joins Chris Shepherd (Underbelly, 2014) and Justin Yu (Oxheart, 2016) in the elite club. Let there be no doubt Houston has cemented its status as the best dining city in Texas.

@chef_hugo65 is #houston proud! Just named best chef: southwest at #jbfa2017 #jbfa @visit_houston

A post shared by Tracy Vaught (@tracy_vaught) on

May 1, 2017 at 6:57pm PDT

The odds seemed stacked against Ortega. National food website Eater picked San Antonio chef Steve McHugh (Cured), writing “This is the chef’s second nom, and most Best Chef winners win by their third. Chefs nominated more than that have slimmer odds, and both (Austin chef Brice) Gilmore and Ortega have five or more nominations.”

Thankfully, no one told Ortega he wasn’t supposed to win on his sixth try. Then again, his life story has consisted of overcoming improbable odds. His rise to the top of Houston’s culinary scene is a classic American tale.

The chef immigrated to this country and started working as a dishwasher at Backstreet Cafe. He showed some aptitude in the kitchen and eventually made his way to culinary school. Along the way, he fell in love with Backstreet’s owner Tracy Vaught. Together, they built the H Town Restaurant Group that operates some of Houston's best restaurants.

Despite all the acclaim, Ortega remains one of the all time nice guys in Houston’s culinary community. Ortega and Vaught’s restaurants achieve high marks for quality and consistency.

"What can I say," Ortega said during his acceptance speech. "America is beautiful and I'm living the dream. Thank you."

After all Ortega has done to make Houston a better city to eat in, it’s the city that should be thanking him.

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we gotta go

Beard-winning Houston chef shares first details of new Montrose restaurant

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

Pasta and cold seafood will be on the menu at House of Louie.

Houston hospitality veterans Bobby Heugel and chef Justin Yu are sharing more details about House of Louie, their new neighborhood restaurant that’s opening this summer in the former Vibrant space at 1931 Fairview Ave. It’s the duo’s first new restaurant since opening Squable in 2019.

Almost a year after announcing their plans for the project, chef Yu, a James Beard Award winner and Food & Wine Best New Chef honoree, shares in press materials that the restaurant’s name and spirit takes inspiration from an establishment operated by his aunts, Betty Louie and Josephine Yeung, for over 30 years in the Los Angeles area.

“House of Louie was how I fell in love with restaurants. There was a magic there,” Yu said in a statement. “It was always a happy place for me, and for all its guests who came from all around the Los Angeles area to go to it. It was just one of those restaurants where it was exactly what you wanted, when you wanted it, but also a restaurant that gave you more than you expected.”

Yu describes the menu as having a “French-Italian soul” that will also incorporate “the smirk of Modern American cooking,” which allows the chef to sidestep criticisms of whether or not his food is a sufficiently authentic version of those two culinary traditions. As with Theodore Rex, his downtown restaurant that holds a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide, dishes at House of Louie will be defined by well-sourced ingredients and delicate saucework.

Meals at the restaurant could begin with dishes such as salads or raw seafood items, including yellowtail alla scapece (cured in chardonnay vinegar) or spot shrimp marinated in Pernod with bergamot and fennel pollen. Pastas, which will be in-house, include a fried lasagna with ragu bianco and Comte cheese fondue. Entrees include roast duck and chicken brined with house-made giardiniera, the spicy topping typically associated with Italian beef sandwiches. Of course, vegetables will be well-represented throughout the menu.

Bobby Heugel, Yu’s partner in the Thorough Fare Co. hospitality group and the founder of bars such as Anvil and Refuge, is overseeing the bar’s cocktail program. Expect martinis galore and seasonal cocktails made with Gulf Coast ingredients. One example is the The Fair View, a riff on the classic Rome with a View made with local roselle hibiscus, Becherovka, dry sherry, and gen tian tea, that’s finished with sparkling wine and pineapple.

The duo aren’t ready to share interior photos, but they describe the renovations as a “simple remake” that enlisted support from local craftspeople including Garnish Design (Milton’s, Tiny Champions), ObjektFab, and Ford Design Finishes. “Just like when you cook a beautiful piece of fish or a carrot that was cared for as it was grown, you do just enough to something beautiful to make it yours,” Yu added.

Joining the project are general manager Tyler Jay Wang, whose resume includes acclaimed Boston establishments No 9 Park and Drink, and executive chef Kirk Thompson, who worked for various Underbelly Hospitality concepts and served as the executive chef at Leo’s River Oaks when it won Best New Restaurant in the 2025 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

House of Louie will be open daily for dinner. Friday lunch and weekend brunch service will be added in the future.

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

Pasta and cold seafood will be on the menu at House of Louie.

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