• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Avenida Houston
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    Food for Thought

    Longhorn Beef — it's what's for dinner at a growing number of Houstonrestaurants

    Marene Gustin
    Nov 18, 2012 | 11:41 am
    • Texas longhorns are extremely popular and valuable as show animals. And now,we’re starting to eat them again.
      Brazos 4-H Archery Club
    • Sam Clegg is a casting agents’ version of a Texas rancher: Hat, boots, Wranglerjeans.
      Photo by Marene Gustin
    • So I headed over to Urban Harvest’s market one Saturday morning. Luckily I madeit there early, since the Cleggs often sell out by 10 a.m.
      Photo by Marene Gustin

    When the server at Giacomo’s Ciba y Vino first told me the specials one day, I was momentarily confused by the Texas Longhorn polpotini with tomato Gorgonzola sauce.

    You know how you see or hear something out of context and it throws you?

    I was, like, I didn’t know chef/owner Lynette Hawkins went to UT, or was there a game on that day?

    Oh, wait, the dish was named for the ingredient: Texas Longhorn beef.

    “I didn’t think people ate Longhorn beef,” said a friend when I told her of about those fabulous meatballs. “I thought they were just for show.”

    Which seemed a little out of place in an Italian restaurant. But that was before I tasted those divine meatballs.

    Now, Longhorn beef has popped up before on some restaurant menus, a couple of years ago it showed up at Zelko’s Bistro and Max’s Wine Dive, but I had not tried any of those dishes and they didn’t seem to make much of a splash.

    “I didn’t think people ate Longhorn beef,” said a friend when I told her of about those fabulous meatballs. “I thought they were just for show.”

    Well, yes, but originally Texans bred them to eat them.

    History lesson

    To make a long story short: In the 1500’s Spaniards brought cattle over to Mexico and on to Texas were they were crossbred with English breeds to develop the modern Texas Longhorn. (See The Rare Breed with James Stewart for a more romantic telling.)

    The Texas Longhorn was a hardy breed, they would eat pretty much anything and could survive the harsh weather. At one time during the 1800’s, 10 million Longhorns were driven north on cattle drives. A less hardy breed wouldn’t have survived the trip, but our Longhorns could.

    The Texas Longhorn was a hardy breed, they would eat pretty much anything and could survive the harsh weather.

    But then we killed off all the buffalo (OK, almost all) and we invented barbed wire and started fencing in our herds on grassland and people preferred the fattier taste of European beef. Longhorn herds dwindled until the 1920’s when Congress stepped in, possibly the last time they did anything good. With federal funding, Forest Service employees gathered a herd and shipped it to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in order to save the breed from extinction.

    Okay, maybe that wasn’t the short version, but fast forward a few decades and Longhorns had become a vanity breed, a breed that wealthy Texas ranchers bred as homage to the past. Today they are extremely popular, and valuable as show animals.

    And now, we’re starting to eat them again.

    Restaurant specials

    You know that burger and the Bolognese sauce at Monica Pope’s Sparrow Bar+Cookshop that are so tasty. Yep, Longhorn beef.

    “We love the Funks’ (owners of Sabra Ranch) Longhorn beef,” says Pope. “Great flavor, but the breed also tests lower in cholesterol and higher in protein, also higher in vitamin A, CLAs and omega 3 fatty acids, all crucial in reducing cholesterol, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure. And the Funks are just great people, too!”

    Getting back to those meatballs at Giacomo’s, one day Sam Clegg’s daughter Martita was dining there and had her dad’s brochure with her. She gave it to Hawkins who requested some Longhorn beef. After one taste she was hooked.

    So try it for yourself and decide. Frankly, I love the taste and the fact that it’s healthier than other types of beef.

    “It’s leaner, healthier and sweeter than other beef,” says Hawkins who now gets a weekly delivery for her polpotini and Bolognese sauce. “You can buy some if you want,” she added. “He’s at the Eastside Farmers Market on Saturdays.”

    So I headed over to Urban Harvest’s market one Saturday morning. Luckily I made it there early, since the Cleggs often sell out by 10 a.m.

    Sam Clegg is a casting agent's version of a Texas rancher. Hat, boots, Wrangler jeans. But not an easy interview since there was a constant stream of customers tasting the Longhorn meatballs and chili Susan Muncey was cooking up at the booth and wanting to ask the rancher questions about his beef.

    Clegg’s Texas Longhorn Land and Cattle Co. in Port Lavaca (and yes, "la vaca" is Spanish for cow) started out as one of those vanity herds.

    “My wife wanted a few Longhorns to put in the front pasture for show,” Clegg said.

    So they bought a small herd for show, but then they started to process the beef and play around with a few recipes about 10 years ago. “My wife Marta’s 1668 chili is a recipe handed down through her family, and of course back then they made it with Longhorn beef, so that’s what we tried first.”

    The dish became such a family favorite that they decided to go commercial with it. But first they wanted to drum up interest in the beef, hence joining the Urban Harvest Farmers Market. And so far it looks like they are doing well. Dozens of customers sampled the wares and asked about the meat, which is natural, grass-fed, hormone-free beef. After tasting and talking to Clegg, a lot of people were buying three to four pounds of ground Longhorn.

    So try it for yourself and decide. Frankly, I love the taste and the fact that it’s healthier than other types of beef. Pretty soon you’ll be able to buy the chili from Texas Longhorn Land and Cattle Co., but for now you’ll just have to buy the meat at the farmer’s market and make your own (and No, Marta isn’t giving out her recipe) or sample some at Giacomo’s.

    And of course there’s that whole Texas pride thing, whether or not you’re a UT alum. Texas Longhorn beef, it’s what’s for dinner.

    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    and the winner is...

    Innovative Houston chef is the city's newest James Beard Award winner

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 17, 2025 | 6:00 am
    James Beard Awards 2025 Thomas Bille Belly of the Beast
    Photo by Getty Images for James Beard Foundation
    Thomas Bille is Houston's newest James Beard Award winner.

    Add another Houston chef to the city’s growing list of James Beard Award winners. Thomas Bille, chef-owner of Belly of the Beast in Spring, earned Best Chef: Texas at the James Beard Foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony.

    Held at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Monday, June 16, Bille was one of five finalists for the award, along with fellow Houstonian Emmanuel Chavez (Tatemo), Emil Oliva (Leche de Tigre in San Antonio), Regino Rojas (Purépecha in Dallas), and Michael Anthony Serva, (Bordo in Marfa). Neither of Houston’s other finalists — Mexico City-inspired cafe Casaema (formerly known as Ema) for Best New Restaurant and fine dining tasting menu restaurant March for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program — earned awards in their categories.

    A Los Angeles native who moved to the Houston area to be closer to his wife’s family, Bille took a winding path to his James Beard Award. He opened the first iteration of Belly of the Beast in 2020 as a chef-driven taqueria that was known for its ceviches and birria tacos. He then spent about a year at Chivos, an ambitious but short-lived Mexican-American restaurant in the Heights.

    In late 2023, he and his wife Elizabeth opened a new version of Belly of the Beast in a Spring shopping center. It showcased a broader array of Bille’s skills, with a wide-ranging menu that pulled from global flavors — lamb shank rendang, anyone? — that included meat, seafood, and pastas. The new restaurant quickly earned wide acclaim, including a Bib Gourmand in the 2024 Michelin Guide and CultureMap Tastemaker Award nominations for both Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year.

    “I feel a depth of gratitude,” Bille tells CultureMap in a text message. “Knowing that my wife and I were able to reopen on our own terms. Gratitude for my family, staff, and guests to give us love and support. It is much appreciated.”

    In an interview from the ceremony shared by the James Beard Foundation, Bille paid tribute to his wife, Elizabeth, for her role in the restaurant’s success.

    “The risk that my wife and I took to open this restaurant is more than worth it. My wife left her industry, she was a national director for nonprofit organization,” he said. “I said, ‘We’re going to reopen Belly of the Beast. I need you with me side-by-side the whole time.’ The first iteration she held down her job and supported us. With her at my wide, I’m able to focus on the kitchen, on the food, and mentoring my cooks. Able to see the bigger picture instead of just being in the weeds all the time.”

    Bille is the second Houstonian to win Best Chef: Texas, joining Street to Kitchen chef-owner Benchawan Jabthong Painter, who won in 2023. Since the category of Best Chef: Texas has only been awarded since 2022, Bille is the first man to earn the title. Prior to being its own region, the James Beard Foundation included Texas in the Southwest, where chefs Robert Del Grande (Cafe Annie), Chris Shepherd (Underbelly), Justin Yu (Oxheart), and Hugo Ortega (Hugo’s) all won awards.

    The only other Texas finalist to win his category was Arjav Ezekiel of Birdie's in Austin, who became the first winner of Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, one of three beverage-oriented categories the foundation added for 2025.

    In addition to Bille and Ezekiel, Texam Chad Houser, founder of Cafe Momentum in Dallas, received the Humanitarian of the Year Award. Toni Tipton-Martin, a Houston-based author, scholar, and journalist, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Houstonian Alba Huerta, who won Outstanding Beverage Program for her bar Julep in 2022, presented one of the night’s awards.

    “It’s with deep celebration that we congratulate the 2025 Restaurant and Chef Award winners — distinguished culinary, beverage, and hospitality leaders whose talent and vision are shaping our dining landscape,” said Clare Reichenbach, CEO, James Beard Foundation, in a statement. “These outstanding professionals are the epitome of ‘Good Food for Good,’ elevating our industry’s standards and redefining what’s possible in American cuisine.”

    James Beard Awards 2025 Thomas Bille Belly of the Beast
      

    Photo by Getty Images for James Beard Foundation

    Thomas Bille is Houston's newest James Beard Award winner.

    awardsjames beard awardchefsthomas billebelly of the beast
    news/restaurants-bars
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...