Foodie News

Hugo's denied a James Beard: An Austin chef with a TV name takes home the prizeinstead

Hugo (second from right) with his James Beard crew in New York.
Ortega getting ready for the James Beard Awards gala on Monday night.

Texas has a new James Beard award-winner, but he doesn't cook in Houston.

Paul Qui won the Best Chef Southwest category over Houston's Hugo Ortega as well as fellow nominees Bruce Auden of San Antonio's Biga on the Banks, Arizona's Kevin Binkley, Bruce Davaillon of Dallas' Rosewood Mansion at Turtle Creek and Jennifer Jasinski of Denver's Rioja.

Announced in a prime time gala at New York's Lincoln Center Monday night, it's the second year in a row that an Austin chef and a chef from the Uchi/Uchiko family has won, with Tyson Cole sharing the category with Saipin Chutima of Las Vegas' Lotus of Siam in 2011. Ortega didn't take home the big prize, but he still received plenty of love.

"So proud of Chef Hugo Ortega . . . on #jbfa nomination. Amazing chef who inspires. You're our winner!" tweeted Ortega's publicist Paula Murphy.

The last Houston restaurant chef to win a James Beard Award was Robert Del Grande in 1992, also for Best Chef Southwest. Irma Galvan of Irma's won an "America's Classic" award in 2008. Monica Pope and Bryan Caswell are also former Best Chef Southwest nominees.

Qui also has some proud Houston ties. He lists H-Town as one of his hometowns and went to high school in the area before going to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin.

Houston chefs earned five semifinalist slots this year, from Best New Restaurant for Pondicheri to a Best Chef Southwest nod for Kata Robata's Manabu "Hori" Horiuchi and a mention for Grant Gordon as a Rising Star Chef. But only one chef earned a prestigious James Beard nomination — Hugo Ortega of Hugo's. It's the apex (so far) of a charmed career for Ortega, from busboy to renowned chef at Hugo's and Backstreet Cafe and Houston's ambassador of interior Mexican cuisine.

Congratulations to Ortega and to Paul Qui as well!

It's been quite a year already for Qui, who won Bravo's Top Chef: Texas this winter.

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What's Eric Eating Episode 476

Award-winning Houston chef dishes on season 4 of hit show The Bear

The Bear/Facebook

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On the most recent episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu joins CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss season four of The Bear, the FX series set in a Chicago restaurant. It’s become an annual tradition for the two men.

(Spoilers ahead for all episodes of season four of The Bear.)

In season four, which debuted on June 25, the show’s eponymous restaurant is struggling to find its footing after a review in the Chicago Tribune criticized the inconsistencies of chef Carmy Berzatto’s constantly-changing menu. The stressful environment leads chef de cuisine Sydney Adamu to contemplate leaving for a new restaurant. Yu relates to the other chef’s desire to hire Sydney away from The Bear.

“This constantly happens in the restaurant business. We become both friends with and fans of people working under other people. You envision opening something new and having that person work for me. How do we get them to move over,” Yu says. “The ability to create is one thing. Money is a big thing. The promise of work-life balance is one thing. Those are ways to get people to move from one place to another.”

The duo also take up the topic of sous chef Tina Marrero’s struggles to get the timing down on the pasta course that’s part of The Bear’s tasting menu. Sandler asks Yu about encouraging cooks to improve their skills

“It’s trust but also training and the ability to have them understand what each dish means, the way it should taste and why, and how fast or slow it should go. A long time ago when we were being trained, we were told to cook the food and not given a reason for why it should be done that way. Whereas, we try our very best these days to explain the reasoning behind having a dish with fewer components so it can be plated up more quickly to get another turn on a table.”

Listen to the full episode to hear Yu’s thoughts on Carmy’s decision to step away from The Bear. He also provides an update on some big changes come to the menu at Theodore Rex, his restaurant in downtown Houston’s Warehouse District that earned a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide.

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