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    Foodie News

    The Next Iron Chef: In Vegas, Caswell bets it all on Gulf cuisine — and guesswhat happens

    Sarah Rufca
    Nov 8, 2010 | 12:31 am

    Welcome to Las Vegas, The Next Iron Chef fans! After an introductory vista of the behemoth new CityCenter (yes, even bigger than Houston's CityCentre, though not spelled as fancy) it's down to brass tacks.

    The chefs head to the Bellagio pastry kitchen of Jean-Philippe Maury. The challenge? Use Maury's felicitous wedding cakes as "inspiration" for a wedding dessert, including chocolate as the secret ingredient.

    Bryan Caswell narrates the overall sense of panic that ensues. "It's not my forte," he summarizes, adding that the two-hour time window allowed little room for error.

    Caswell, Marco Canora and Ming Tsai all gravitate towards a tower of profiteroles, while Marc Forgione makes a messy peanut butter and chocolate parfait and Celina Tio makes a quartet of random chocolateness.

    No one seems to really wow Maury, and Tsai's version of the croquembouche, the most successful of the trio, ekes out a modest but important win.

    Next Alton Brown rolls in a trio of serving carts — the chefs will be modernizing and recreating the classic Vegas 24-hour buffet, creating two cold dishes and three hot plates in three hours.

    This week the frenetic pace of the elimination challenge really hit home. With AT&T U-verse in a fight with the Food Channel I had to watch the show in a DVR-less office (I'm one of the 200,000 Houston households with U-verse), so even writing down the five dishes everyone was serving in their buffet in real time — no pause! — was a challenge. So, like the chefs, I might have made some slip-ups, but at least I don't have the chairman or the judges staring me down.

    Caswell set off to show the judges a cross-section of Gulf cuisine, with a shrimp and fig salad that Arpaia pronounced mushy and a beef and grape salad she found marred by competing flavors. His baby back ribs with a peach tequila sauce were judged "fantastic" (before being dismissed as the culinary birthright of every Texan — I wish!), and a chili pork butt that was great, but obscured the flavor of the next dish, barbecue cracked crab.

    Marc Forgione starts with a vegetable consumme the judges deem very flavorful, a perfectly-cooked leg of lamb that judge Simon Majumdar dubs "ruined by the competing flavors of the basil pesto crust and the chimichurri sauce. His raw salmon and classic prime rib are acceptable but his coconut curry-braised veal cut is vilified as way too salty — the cost of breaking in the pressure cooker.

    Canora shouts and runs his ways through the challenge, but against all odds he finishes in time. His eggplant parmesan earns points from Donatella Arpaia just for not being terrible, and his other dishes — a veal cheek, something with seafood and another pork dish — all earn moderate praise, while Majumdar toasts his fruit salad just for containing pineapple and not being awful.

    Tsai took the chefs on a tour of Asia for his buffet, with a smoked salmon and avocado parfait, a scallop ceviche that wowed the judges, middling lobster and dirty fried rice, a sweet and sour baby back ribs marred and mushi-fied by a the offensive pineapple, and an unbalanced ribeye pho that the judges found fatty and overwrought.

    Tio chose to stick to her elevated classics, starting with a cauliflower soup the judges loved, a lobster shepherd's pie that Majumdar pronounced delicious, slow-roasted salmon and a "confused" garlic-cured duck.

    With two eliminations in store, the judges seem conflicted about Caswell's hopes, as he served neither the best nor the worst dishes of the day and failed to "wow "them once again. But between Arpaia's distaste for Tio's white blandness, Forgione's offensively salted veal and Tsai's acid-free pho, it seems like anyone could be going home.

    The judges declare Canora the victor, as he seemed to execute all his dishes the best with no major flaws. And when it's time to make the cuts, the first chef going home is... Bryan Caswell.

    This sucks. As it turns out, the tie for fourth place means only Caswell gets the exit, and the double elimination will be saved for next week.

    I am disappointed and bitter, but Caswell seems to take the news better. "I'm surprised I did as well as I did in this kind of competition, because I'm not the guy who usually gets it right the first time," he said. Bryan, you kept it classy and you made us all proud.

    We're hearing Caswell's Stella Sola is planning a dinner of some of the food he served on the show. What dishes should be on it? We're voting for the updated openface turkey sandwich from week two and Bertie Bea's collard greens.

    CultureMappers, were you surprised to see Caswell get the boot? Without him in the contest, who do you want to win?

    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    Texas Tastemakers

    Best Texas restaurants and chefs honored with 2025 Tastemaker Awards

    Amber Heckler
    May 13, 2025 | 10:02 am
    Leo's River Oaks
    Photo by Andrew Hemingway
    Best New Restaurant: Leo's River Oaks.

    CultureMap has finally completed its statewide journey to honor the best chefs, restaurants, and more with the 2025 Tastemaker Awards.

    The series kicked off April 3 with our Houston Tastemaker Awards at Silver Street Studios, then we moved south to San Antonio on April 10 for our biggest party there yet, at the Briscoe Museum.

    We then headed to North Texas for our Fort Worth celebration at 4 Eleven on April 23, followed by our Dallas celebration at Astoria Event Venue on May 1.

    Last, but certainly not least, our Texas culinary tour finished strong with our Austin fête at Fair Market on May 8.

    The 2025 Tastemaker Awards celebrated Texas' brilliant and diverse culinary landscape and honored those who've made the biggest impact in the past year. Our nominated chefs and restaurants showcased their flavorful bites and treats during each of the celebrations, and winners were revealed in an onstage ceremony.

    Guests dined on chef-created dishes and sipped on a variety of creative batched cocktails. But nothing could take away the focus from our acclaimed nominees and winners, who are the main reason we bring these celebrations to life year after year.

    Nominees were, as always, determined by a panel of local industry experts, including previous Tastemaker winners and CultureMap staff. They voted on winners in categories such as Chef of the Year, Restaurant of the Year, Bar of the Year, and more. The champion in the Best New Restaurant category was determined by our readers in an online, bracket-style tournament.

    Our 2025 “wild card” category was a competition for Best Coffee Shop in each of our cities; the ones that keep us caffeinated and happy day after day.

    Readers in each city got to know all the nominees through a special editorial series for weeks leading up to the events.

    Now without further delay, let’s meet our 2025 CultureMap Tastemaker Award winners all across Texas, listed by city:

    Houston:

    • Restaurant of the Year: Baso
    • Chef of the Year: Emmanuel Chavez, Tatemó
    • Bar of the Year: Johnny’s Gold Brick
    • Best New Restaurant: Leo’s River Oaks
    • Rising Star Chef of the Year: Jacques Varon and Max Lappe, Baso
    • Pastry Chef of the Year: Stephanie Velasquez, Ema/Papalo
    • Bartender of the Year: Aaron Lara, Kira
    • Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition
    • Best Pop-Up/Startup: Suu Khin, Burmalicious
    • Best Coffee Shop: Blacksmith

    San Antonio:

    • Restaurant of the Year: Ladino
    • Chef of the Year: John Russ, Clementine
    • Best New Restaurant: Freight Fried Chicken
    • Bar of the Year: Gimme Gimme
    • Brewery of the Year: Roadmap Brewing Co.
    • Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Cullum’s Attagirl
    • Pastry Chef of the Year: Alessia Benavides, Chocolatl
    • Best Coffee Shop: Folklores Coffee House

    Fort Worth:

    • Restaurant of the Year: Teddy Wongs
    • Chef of the Year: Alessandro Salvatore, Bocca Osteria Romana
    • Bar of the Year: The Rabbit Hole Pub
    • Best New Restaurant: Whiskey Cake
    • Rising Star Chef of the Year: Steve Hoogeboom, 61 Osteria
    • Pastry Chef of the Year: Lindsey Lawing, Sweet Lucy's Pies
    • Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Bodega South Main
    • Best Barbecue: Panther City BBQ
    • Best Coffee Shop: Avoca Coffee Roasters

    Dallas:

    • Restaurant of the Year: Mister Charles
    • Chef of the Year: Jeff Bekavac, Goodwins
    • Bar of the Year: Columbian Country Club
    • Best New Restaurant: Nikki Greek Bistro & Lounge
    • Rising Star Chef of the Year: Roman Murphy, Perch Bistro
    • Pastry Chef of the Year: Ryan Stipp, Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa
    • Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: The Porch
    • Best Eatertainment: Chicken N Pickle
    • Best Coffee Shop: Merit Coffee

    Austin:

    • Restaurant of the Year: Este
    • Chef of the Year: Peter Klein, Holiday
    • Rising Star Chef of the Year: Heejae Galluccio, Birdie’s
    • Pastry Chef of the Year: Abby Love, Abby Jane Bakeshop
    • Bar of the Year: Equipment Room
    • Best New Restaurant: Tancho Sushi
    • Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: The Little Darlin’
    • Brewery of the Year: St. Elmo Brewing Co.
    • Best Coffee Shop: Desnudo Coffee

    Leo's River Oaks
      
    Photo by Andrew Hemingway

    Best New Restaurant in Houston for 2025: Leo's River Oaks.

    The Houston Tastemaker Awards ceremony was brought to you by Stella Artois, Chardon, Jim Beam Black, Ritual Zero Proof, Seedlip, Valencia's Tex-Mex Garage, Hornitos, Ghost Hill Organic Vodka, and PicMe Events. A portion of proceeds benefited our nonprofit partner, the Southern Smoke Foundation.

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