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    Tastes good, less filling

    The scoop on summer salads: Stay cool with light fare (recipes included)

    Sarah Beth Seifert
    Aug 14, 2011 | 1:30 pm

    Writer Anna Mitchael recently expounded on the effects of this hellish weather we are experiencing:

    You know it’s hot when…sipping on a glass of red wine sounds like the worst possible way to spend an evening, and you’re seriously considering being the person who starts skipping meals because nothing sounds good except crawling into a bathtub full of ice…”

    I can relate. It takes a lot for me to lose my appetite. And not much (read, NOTHING) can prevent me from having three meals a day.

    But the triple digits make me want to consume only things that will lower my body temperature. Fortunately my frozen yogurt cravings have been almost matched by my taste for salads.

    But as it’s now August, my salad repertoire is turning mundane. So here are five salad ideas from around the Interwebs to help pull us out of our summer salad rut. (Click on the salad name to find the recipe.)

    Make at home

    Eat, Live, Run’s Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

    An underrated grain, quinoa is a solid base for a filling salad. And when tossed with feta cheese, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes and spices, the result promises no shortage of flavor, freshness and nutrients. Top with grilled chicken for dinner and store in the fridge for a few days' worth of leftovers.

    Sunset’s Arugula Avocado Salad

    Fresh, understated and substantive, this is the perfect pre-entrée treat to serve guests on a summer night. Pine nuts, cheese and avocado add weight to this light salad. Toss in lemon juice and olive oil immediately before serving.

    Real Simple’s Turkey Taco Salad

    This recipe is healthier than it looks. The combination of ground turkey, beans, avocado and a bit of cheese makes it fit for dinner. Sub black beans for pinto, if you prefer. Go fajita style by adding sautéed onions and peppers and fresh tomatoes.

    Smitten Kitchen’s Cranberry-Walnut Chicken Salad

    This is a very basic chicken salad. Alter the mayonnaise portions according to your taste and serve in a wheat pita or over a bed of lettuce. Or try this even simpler version, now a staple recipe for me: cooked (in crock pot with water) chicken, shredded and tossed with whole grain mustard, a dollup of mayonnaise or Greek yogurt, Craisins, slivered almonds, green onions and feta.

    Martha Stewart’s Shrimp and White-Bean Salad

    Complete with shrimp, whole grain mustard, white beans and vinegar, this salad offers a unique combination of flavors. Cooking the shrimp in bacon fat adds a savory depth to the dish. For another nourishing dinner option, sub grilled chicken for the shrimp.

    Or opt for takeout

    Putting together a salad at home makes for a healthy and affordable meal, but sometimes we are too busy to pull it off. We squeeze in meals between meetings and errands, or later than we would prefer in the evenings. So for a quick fix, I’ve listed my three go-to salads from around town.

    Zoe’s Kitchen’s Greek Salad

    Fresh greens, veggies, feta cheese and chicken (or not) sit atop old fashioned potato salad. I’ve been eating Zoe’s for 10 years and still crave it every week.

    BRC’s Steak and Tomatoes Salad

    This is the only salad with beef that I’ve ever loved. Juicy tomato slices and red onions rest beneath grilled slices of skirt steak, peppered to perfection.

    Mission Burrito’s Que Mas Salad

    Greens, potatoes, corn, roasted red peppers and jicama mingle with the meat of your choice in this local favorite. And a side of corn tortillas, please!

    Whether you’re on the go, in your cubicle or hibernating from the heat at home, nosh on one of these salads this week. Then go crawl into a bathtub full of ice.

    unspecified
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    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

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