Houston's Best Chefs

Houston's best chefs give Tastemakers real star power: The 11 difference makers who make foodies swoon

It's time for a look at one last category for the 2014 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards: Best Chef. Our nominees are the men and women who develop the menus, train the staffs and work the lines at some of Houston hottest, most high-profile restaurants.

Of course, narrowing down the city's cooking talent to only 11 Best Chef candidates is almost absurd; really, we could remove all but the three recent James Beard Finalists, swap in nine other candidates and still have a talented group that would hold its own against almost any city in the country.

Alas, choices must be made, and these are the candidates our panel selected.

Want to know who wins? Join us tonight at a tasting event where we will celebrate the winners, the nominees and all the people who make eating in this city so much damn fun.

Justin Yu, Oxheart

At Oxheart, Justin Yu upends the image of Houston as a meat and potatoes town with a vegetable-focused, locally-sourced cuisine. When Yu opened two years ago with his wife, pastry chef Karen Man, and sommelier Justin Vann, some in the food community wondered whether he could fill all 31 seats every night, but the cooking is so interesting that it's become Houston's toughest reservation.

Credit Yu's Asian-inspired techniques that draw on his experiences working at a variety of Michelin-starred restaurants both in the United States and aboard. That Yu and his cooks are able to walk the high wire of meeting diners' elevated expectations each night and continue to rack up awards like becoming a James Beard finalist and a Food + Wine Best New Chef only emphasizes the degree to which they're able to put their guests first.

Chris Shepherd, Underbelly

With a win this week at the James Beard Foundation Awards for Best Chef Southwest to add to his Food + Wine Best New Chef award, Chris Shepherd has emerged as Houston's highest profile, most celebrated chef. Since Shepherd's goal at Underbelly is to tell "the story of Houston food" by bringing together the various strands of the "Mutt City" influences into a cohesive whole, he's the most representative example of what makes the city's restaurant scene so dynamic.

Shepherd's love for the city extends to tailgating at Texans game. Food and football — what could be more typically Houston than that?

Underbelly's rigorous requirement to source ingredients as locally as possible forces Shepherd and his team to use ingredients creatively, giving the restaurant a dynamism that's incredibly rare. The chef's love for the city extends to tailgating at Texans games. Food and football — what could be more typically Houston than that?

Seth Siegel-Gardner/Terrence Gallivan, The Pass & Provisions

Houston native Seth Siegel-Gardner convinced his business partner Terrence Gallivan to leave New York and give Houston a shot for a month-long pop-up in August 2010 with then mostly unknown chef Justin Yu. Known as the Just August Project, the event was such an overwhelming success that Siegel-Gardner and Gallivan decided to stick around and open a restaurant here rather than return to New York.

At The Pass & Provisions, they're able to serve all the varieties of food that interest them — pizza, sandwiches and casual fare at Provisions and theatrical tasting menus at The Pass. It's a space that's equally appropriate for happy hour or an anniversary celebration. The chefs continue to innovate. The Pass now serves a menu that is both vegan and gluten free, because they believe that allergies or dietary restrictions shouldn't mean boring food.

Manabu Horiuchi, Kata Robata

If a chef's chef is the person who prepares the food other chefs most like to eat, then Manabu Horiuchi is Houston's cheffiest chef. From his post at the sushi counter at Kata Robata, Hori-san (as he's universally known) serves a who's who of Houston's top culinary talent screamingly fresh seafood in simple ways that subtly enhance each fish's natural flavor.

Hori-san commands so much respect within the local restaurant community that the annual Go Pig! or Go Home! event he hosts is a can't-miss evening. After all, none of the chefs want to let Hori-san down.

Kaiser Lashkari, Himalaya

At Himalaya, Kaiser Lashkari delivers authentic Pakistani cuisine to hordes of happy diners. Less adventurous palates will find that the samosas and chicken tikka masala are top notch, but the menu's real strength lies in the biryanis, grilled fish masala and other dishes not seen elsewhere.

Need a further endorsement? Justin Yu calls Lashkari his "food hero."

Lashkari's "Hunter's Beef," a Pakistani riff on pastrami, is a can't miss dish. Since Lashkari's wife is a vegetarian (as are many customers), vegetable dishes are flavorful and carefully prepared. Save room for dessert; the chef has a way with pastry, too. Need a further endorsement? Justin Yu calls Lashkari his "food hero."

Ronnie Killen, Killen's Steakhouse/Killen's Barbecue

Since 2006, Ronnie Killen's Pearland steakhouse has been one of Houston's top destinations for Prime beef thanks to high-quality ingredients, creative appetizers and the overall attention to detail that the obsessive chef brings to his work. Even though the restaurant does massive business despite being only open 26 hours a week, Killen felt the need to grow.

He applied the training he received at Le Cordon Bleu in London to the barbecue he prepared with his father and launched Killen's Barbecue. As both a pop-up and a restaurant, Killen's Barbecue has attracted long lines and fervent devotees. The shirts say "The best barbecue, period," and Killen won't rest until he's unseated Aaron Franklin as the best in Texas.

Hugo Ortega, Backstreet Cafe/Hugo's/Caracol

From bus boy to James Beard Award finalist, Hugo Ortega has a classic rags to riches story. In 2002, Ortega opened Hugo's to bring authentic Mexican dishes to Houston. Its success helped pave the way for other Houston restaurants that moved beyond the city's reputation for burgers, steaks and fajitas.

Now at Caracol, he's delivering seafood dishes from both of Mexico's coasts to raves. Backstreet may not be as highly regarded as Ortega's other two restaurants, but it still delivers subtle twists on classic flavors while respecting seasonal ingredients. Three beloved restaurants. One outstanding chef.

Brandi Key, culinary director, Clark/Cooper Concepts

As the chef at Coppa Ristorante, Brandi Key helped smooth the space's transition from Chris Shepherd's celebrated restaurant Catalan into a lively Italian spot thanks to her careful cooking (and world-class meatballs). Key then pivoted and launched Coppa Osteria, showing a broader selection of pizzas and introducing sandwiches as a more casual twist on the original.

Now, she's channeled her family's heritage to craft the engaging menu at Punk's Simple Southern Food. Carbonara and fried chicken? Arancini and hush puppies? Key handles it all. Next up, she'll tackle Tex-Mex. Won't that be fun?

Ryan Hildebrand, Triniti

Nine isn't just the number of times Ferris Bueller was absent from school, it's also the number of times Triniti chef/owner Ryan Hildebrand has turned over his restaurant's seasonal menu. Even if steak and chicken (locally-sourced and organic, of course) remain staples, each menu features twist that Hildebrand and chef de cuisine Greg Lowry develop to keep things fresh — a different cut or new sauces.

Triniti's brunch menu has been such an overwhelming success that its added Saturday service.

The carefully constructed salads and simple seafood preparations helped catch the eye of First Lady Michelle Obama, but Hildebrand is equally adept at throwing down a massive, bone-in pork chop or luxurious lobster mac and cheese (shades of his role in opening Vic & Anthony's?). If all that weren't enough, Triniti's brunch menu has been such an overwhelming success that its added Saturday service.

Ryan Pera, Revival Market/Coltivare

When he left the Grove to launch Revival Market with business partner Morgan Weber, he earned a following for delivering casual food (sandwiches, soups, salads) made with high-quality ingredients at prices just slightly above vastly inferior products. As it became more popular, Pera expanded Revival's offerings to include prepared to-go items and a dinner series that sold out every night it occurred.

Now at Coltivare, Pera has brought the same respect for ingredients to an Italian-inspired menu of wood fired pizzas, wood roasted meats and produce sourced from the restaurant's 3,000 square-foot garden. The result is a foodie frenzy as people line up nightly to snag one of the coveted tables.

Michael Gaspard, Pappas Restaurants

As a research and development chef for the Pappas organization, Michael Gaspard probably isn't well known to most diners, but the respect his peers in the restaurant industry have for him is evident with this nomination. His professional pedigree speaks for itself with stints at celebrated Chicago restaurants including Charlie Trotter's, Ambria and Le Francais on his resume.

For the past 11 years, he's helped make Pappas Restaurants one of the city's most profitable restaurants groups. Occasionally, Gaspard participates in pop-ups, where he shows flashes of a cuisine that's fresh, flavorful and straightforward, with at least one offal dish.

Maybe someday an enterprising restaurateur will back up the Brinks truck, buy Gaspard out of his contract and open a small plates/bar driven concept that would be packed every night. Until then, go to the Little Pappas on Shepherd and order the new dishes. He probably had a hand in creating them.

Michael Gaspard.

Photo by Sarah Rufca

Michael Gaspard.

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Notes from a chef

Globe-trotting Houston chef reviews Noma's $1,500 Los Angeles pop-up

Courtesy of David Skinner

Pink pepper Dungeness crab.

[Editor’s note: When David Skinner, chef and owner of Kemah’s celebrated eculent and Ishtia restaurants, offered to share his experience eating at one of the world’s best restaurants, we said, of course. Read on for his experience at Copenhagen restaurant Noma’s pop-up in Los Angeles that took place this summer. Take it away, David.]

The crab was alive a few minutes before I ate it.

Just before service, the kitchen broke down a Dungeness crab and set it over open charcoal, the downtown Los Angeles skyline behind the smoke. It came to the table wreathed in dried pink pepper branches, with a butter sauce built on the same pepper. I've eaten crab all over the world — this was maybe the best crab ever.

That was the first of 17 courses at Noma LA, and the best bite of the afternoon. Leading with your best shot is either confidence or a statement. By the end of lunch, I'd decided it was both.

The residency had begun in turmoil. Founder René Redzepi stepped away from the residency the day it opened, following a news investigation into allegations of demeaning treatment of staff — conduct that had been discussed in industry circles for years. Protesters gathered at the gate that day. The kitchen, led by Pablo Soto, carried on through the residency's close on June 26.

I went for lunch at the Paramour Estate, the 1920s Mediterranean mansion in Silver Lake that Noma called home for 16 weeks. For more than 30 years, I've traveled the world in search of culture, a little mystery, and always food, eating everywhere from strangers' kitchen tables to three-Michelin-star dining rooms.

As the chef behind eculent and Ishtia in Kemah, I also eat with a cook's eye — which means I'll tell you what was brilliant and what was oversalted. Noma LA had a little of both, but after a half dozen meals at Noma over the past 10 years, I can say this one was a standout.

The setup

The logistics alone are remarkable. Noma relocated roughly 130 staff members and their families to Los Angeles and built a pantry sourced within 300 miles of the mansion. Lunch ran 17 courses over about four hours at $1,500 per person, including beverages and gratuity.

Chef Soto greeted us at the entrance with the full kitchen staff, a Noma tradition. By the time I arrived, the protesters were long gone, and the brigade seemed to be cooking with a sense of relief.

Rather than choose between the wine pairing and the nonalcoholic program, we asked our server, Mara, to mix the two course by course. She nailed it, moving from a sparkling rose-and-pink-pepper drink to a bright cherimoya lemonade to a 25-year-old Tony Coturri zinfandel from Glen Ellen that became the table's favorite pour.

The standouts

The crab. It opened the meal, and nothing that followed topped it. The pink pepper did double duty with the dried branches perfuming the shell, the butter sauce carrying a gentle heat — the sweet, smoky meat needed nothing else. Alongside came a 2022 Phelan Farm chardonnay from Rajat Parr's Cambria operation: white Burgundy in spirit, California in its bones.

The cactus. Pickled tacinga cactus, marinated in Oaxacan mezcal and citrus and crowned with honeypot ants, arrived beneath a live cactus paddle with a eucalyptus handle.

The acorn. A single braised acorn, glazed with black pepper, sat atop an uni custard made with Santa Barbara sea urchin and caviar in hoja santa oil. The server described it as a nod to California's Indigenous peoples. As a Choctaw, whose ancestors relied on acorns for thousands of years, I felt that one. It was also the most technically accomplished savory course of the meal.

The seaweed and clams. Six varieties of Southern California seaweed with butter-kissed clams tasted like the coast itself. This is Noma at its best: not interpreting California so much as listening to it.

The tuna eye. I've eaten cod eye at Noma in Copenhagen, but this version was way better. The kitchen removed the tough cornea, replaced it with a thin disk of kumquat, and served the eye chilled inside a ruby-red banana flower bract. Rich and gelatinous, it's eaten in one bite. When our table wondered aloud where the rest of all that tuna goes, Mara had the answer: family meal for the staff.

The kelp mole. Grilled greens, a squash blossom stuffed with huitlacoche, and an artichoke on its stalk arrived with tortillas from Komal, one of Los Angeles's top heirloom molinos, paired with a mole built on kelp.

Between the acorn, the cactus, and the mole, a question kept surfacing: what does it mean for a Danish kitchen to arrive in someone else's pantry and cook as though it has always been there? Some of these ingredients have fed Indigenous and Mexican cooks for centuries. Noma handled them with obvious respect and real curiosity. Sometimes, though, the line between homage and borrowing comes down to whether you're willing to say the name out loud.

Dessert kept the surprises coming, including a macadamia custard served in a sunflower whose base turned out to be beeswax. The finale arrived as a bundle of ferns tied with string. Diners snip it open with tiny scissors to find a chocolate cookie and a fortune inside. Mine quoted Nietzsche: You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.

Nietzsche, at $1,500 a head, in a Silver Lake mansion, from a kitchen whose founder walked away on opening day while protesters stood at the gate. The kitchen knew exactly what it was doing.

The full menu, course by course

For those keeping score, here's the complete lineup.

Pink pepper Dungeness crab
Daylily crab dumpling — The rest of the crab, tucked inside a trumpet-shaped daylily with buds plumped in crustacean liquor. The flower dominated; the crab was the reason to eat it.
Chilled lobster broth — Spiny lobster stock, dashi, and elderflower oil served chilled in the lobster's own coral-colored shell. A palate reset dressed as a course.
Spot prawn with matcha — Served in real seaweed, the head filled with smoked pumpkin paste for sucking, the tail painted with matcha. Paired with the 2024 Verso from Caleb Leisure in Sebastopol.
Sea urchin custard and braised acorn
Cactus with mezcal
Ragout of California botanicals — Seasonal greens, peas, and herbs in a warm, quiet preparation, tied together by a hint of horseradish.
SoCal seaweed and clam
Tuna neck — Minced tuna neck in a koji-inoculated steamed bun with the texture of suede, topped with translucent shards of dried chicken-stock skin. Paired with the 2000 Estate Zinfandel from Tony Coturri.
Tuna eye
Black pearl rice steamed in avocado leaf — Ringed with pistachio oil and scattered with dime-sized macadamia slices. Humble ingredients in the spirit of California great Jeremiah Tower.
Morels with habanero and yuzu — Sierra Nevada morels on turkey-tail mushrooms over hot stones. Bright and spicy, but heavy on the salt.
Greens and grilled artichoke in spiced kelp mole
Cherimoya and lemongrass — A green cocoa butter shell shaped like a cactus, hiding a smooth cherimoya ice cream. A California fruit most California menus ignore.
Macadamia milk custard and pistachio — Topped with heirloom Hong Kong kumquats from a handful of research trees that fruit four weeks a year, served in a beeswax-lined sunflower.
Silver Lake fortune cookie — A Chiapas chocolate mousse cookie garnished with insects, hidden in a bundle of ferns you cut open with tiny scissors. Fortune included.

The misses

Not every course landed. Morels with habanero and yuzu were oversalted, and some presentations were delivered too quietly to catch the full story. At $1,500 a seat, the storytelling should be as confident as the cooking.

The verdict

Having now eaten Noma's traveling editions in Tulum and Los Angeles, I'll offer an opinion that may be unpopular in certain circles: the pop-ups are better than Copenhagen. Maybe it's the hunt for new ingredients, or the urgency of a 16-week run in a borrowed house. Whatever the reason, the results are hard to argue with. I put that theory to the test in August, when I returned to Noma on my birthday, three days after it reopened with Soto at the helm. More on that meal soon.

Noma LA wasn't really a restaurant. It was an argument about a place, made in food, by people who flew 6,000 miles to make it. The argument was frequently brilliant, occasionally presumptuous, and closed with Nietzsche in a fortune cookie. On balance, it won.

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David Skinner is a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas and the owner of eculent and Ishtia in Kemah. He also writes the culinary travel journal Destination Eater on Substack.

Courtesy of David Skinner

Pink pepper Dungeness crab.

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