• 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

    Rave 'n' Rant

    Houston's a foodie haven in any decade

    Janice Schindeler
    Dec 29, 2009 | 9:00 am
    With the only Houston restaurant to get a front-page story on the dining section of the NY Times, Feast co-owners James Silk, Meagan Silk and Richard Knight elevate odd cuts to an art form. Ox heart with a carrot and coriander salad, anyone?

    The best of the decade? Wish I been assigned this job 10 years ago. My memory is feeble. Seriously, it’s tough to just whip this stuff out in time to make a deadline with little forewarning. Come Jan. 1, 2010, I will be taking notes should my opinion remain relevant 10 years on.
     
    But no worries. Houston’s a big city in love with food, and I am never short of oddball opinions.
     
    1. Genius chef: Robert Del Grande. Mega-talented Del Grande is one smart cookie. In danger of becoming old and dated, Del Grande played himself and the stunning new RDG + Bar Annie smack dab to the forefront of the Houston food scene, serving long-time Café Annie faves and some whiz-bang new dishes in a slick, hip, gotta-be-seen-in atmosphere. He has been reborn, hotter and better than ever. The place is sure to be a national food media magnet.

     

    2. I knew he was a master when Bryan Caswell presented the tuna ribbons sashimi while chefing at Bank. Now the whole country knows, thanks to the chef/owner of Reef being named one of the year’s top 10 chefs by Food & Wine Magazine. A champion of local, underused species and a keen fisherman, Caswell also writes a witty blog and co-hosts a raucous weekly radio show. With his Little Bigs and the recently opened Stella Sola, Caswell takes the leap from chef to restaurateur.
     
    3. With the only Houston restaurant to get a front-page story on the dining section of the NY Times, Feast co-owners James Silk, Meagan Silk and Richard Knight elevate odd cuts to an art form. Ox heart with a carrot and coriander salad? Frank Bruni said it all when he wrote, “Feast has no real peer in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major cities that pride themselves on their epicurean adventurousness." Me? I like their reverence. Prior to Feast, the building housed Chez Georges, the brief home to the mighty fine French food of Georges Guy. Feast folks have left the gold-tone GUY letters on the building. Nice touch.
     
    4. Connecting city dwellers with farm-fresh food, the emergence of farmers' markets in Houston has made food shopping fun, tasty, nutritional and seasonal. Queen of the markets, chef/owner Monica Pope, took the direct approach. She wanted a market, so she created one in t'afia’s parking lot. Now to encourage purchasing, she runs a Saturday morning cooking class at the market. Urban Harvest sponsors the biggest Saturday market in the city. Highland Village and Houston farmers' markets have recently opened Saturday morning market as well. Rain or shine, hot or hotter, Houstonians politely queue for farm-fresh produce, carry cold, hard cash and most remember their canvas totes. Will wonders never cease?
     
    5. Best advocate of the other white meat: Chris Shepherd of Catalan. Pork waddled onto restaurant tables all over town, but Shepherd’s pork belly cubes on a stick with Steen cane syrup won my heart and threatened my waistline from the get-go. Much missed this year is Catalan’s aromatic garlic soup with perfectly poached egg (hint, hint).
     
    6. Best cooking school in town? Toques tipped to the culinary program of The Art Institute of Houston. Alumni of the culinary arts program are headlining all over town—Charles Clark at Ibiza, Chris Shepherd at Catalan, Randy Evans at Haven, Jonathan Jones at Beaver’s. Sure, nobody was an overnight success, but these grads of the '90s got their basics and their work ethics down right and early. I'm anxiously awaiting the maturation of culinary students from this decade.
     
    7. Best chef who deserves more national press (but rarely gets any): The modest, gracious Hugo Ortega, whose namesake restaurant, Hugo’s, elevates interior Mexican food to an art form. Moles of distinction, squash blossom soup of perfection and shockingly authentic grasshopper tacos, Ortega is committed to offering the authentic flavors of his homeland in an elegant far south of the border atmosphere. A teenager who came north looking for a better life, dishwasher, office cleaner, busboy, cook and now chef/owner—hell, not only should Ortega get more national press, his life could be a movie.
     
    8. Best flavor heroine: Anita Jaisinghani, chef/owner of Indika, takes the alluring spices and textures of her childhood and contemporizes them, creating modern Indian food of staggering excellence. Instead of cranking out curries, Jaisinghani creatively evolves the cuisine of her homeland to gastronomic heights. One bite of the corn-and-garbanzo chaat appetizer or her startlingly fresh chutneys will convince you I am right. Nationally, Jaisinghani has had her share of glowing national press, just seems that locally the buzz could be louder.
     
    9. Diligently crisscrossing rural Texas, Lindsey Schechter and her Houston Dairymaids has single-handedly introduced Houstonians to a plethora of boutique cheeses from micro-producers whose tasty goods would otherwise lanquish in far-flung counties. To cheesemakers, Schechter is a lifeline; to chefs committed to sustainable, local foods, she is priceless; and to farmers’ market attendees, she’s the cheese lady. Simply stated, Schechter has put Texas cheese on the national scene—Wisconsin and Vermont, watch out!
     
    10. Best food provider: Houston Food Bank. Not even Hurricane Ike could keep these devoted folks from their mission of feeding Houston’s hungry. Prior to Ike, they stocked shelters of last resort with food and water. In the immediate aftermath, as in the day after, while the rest of the city reeled, the Food Bank shifted into overdrive—operating at four times their normal capacity. (FEMA folks should take notes.) During the tedious and trying months that followed, they continued with the post-Ike relief effort, distributing a whopping 20 million pounds of food, water and personal care products.
     
    Honorable Mention: Discovery Green. This inner-city park provides food venues that cross socio-economic boundaries: picnic space for inner-city dwellers, casual fast food of exceptional quality, Del Grande's stunning The Grove for the well-heeled, a Sunday farmers' market for all and just added, Grizzaffi Coffee kiosk, serving coffee and espresso drinks made from Fontana Coffee Roasters.

     

    With the only Houston restaurant to get a front-page story on the dining section of the NY Times, Feast co-owners James Silk, Meagan Silk and Richard Knight elevate odd cuts to an art form. Ox heart with a carrot and coriander salad, anyone?

     
    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    roll out

    Self-taught chef slices into Houston with high-quality sushi to go

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 17, 2025 | 5:57 pm
    Kaisen Sushi Houston nigiri
    Courtesy of Kaisen Sushi Houston
    Each order of nigiri comes with a house made sushi sauce.

    The ghost kitchen phenomenon may have diminished somewhat since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the idea of a delivery and to-go-only restaurant still draws talented chefs who want to focus on food at a lower overhead than a traditional brick-and-mortar. One of those chefs is Sunny Bertsch, whose restaurant Kaisen Sushi Houston is already drawing buzz from inner loopers looking for a more affordable, at-home sushi experience.

    Located at the Blodgett Food Hall in Third Ward, Kaisen Sushi serves typical nigiri, maki, and temaki (hand rolls), along with a steak bowl. Prices are a little lower than what someone would find at a typical sushi restaurant, with an eight-piece nigiri set priced at $18.99 when ordered through the Blodgett Food Hall website (expect to pay more if ordering via a third-party delivery service such as Uber Eats or DoorDash).

    While Bertsch’s food may be familiar, his story is not. The diners who’ve rated Kaisen with 4.9 stars on Google may be surprised to learn that he’s only been cooking professionally for two years. As Bertsch tells CultureMap, prior to becoming a professional chef, he worked in fields as varied as aerospace and dog walking.

    “I’d always been interested in cooking,” he says. “I was blessed to be born into a great Korean American family. My dad and my grandparents always cooked great food. I learned by osmosis.”

    Bertsch began his career as a private chef by working for friends. He built his business by catering lunches to powerhouse law firm Vinson & Elkins. Eventually, his clients asked for private sushi dinners, and he had to figure things out.

    “I got an opportunity to do a sushi omakase. It was brutal. It was messy. But I knew once I did that, I wanted to dedicate my life to sushi,” he says. “Since then, I have studied and practiced. I threw a lot of money and time and fish at it.”

    Bertsch improved his speed and knife skills by taking a $13-per-hour job at Japanese grocery store Seiwa Market. While there, he says he made thousands of pieces of nigiri, rolls, and sushi bowls. That experience, along with meals from similar to-go-only concepts in New York and San Francisco, convinced him to open Kaisen as a ghost kitchen.

    “So far, I’ve spent $90,000. That’s more than the average investment for a food hall kitchen,” Bertsch explains. “I’m a clean freak. I’m a technology freak. I’m an authenticity freak. I outfitted my kitchen in the way I thought was necessary for long-term success.”

    Just as he spared no expense in specing out his kitchen, Bertsch puts thoughtful touches into his food, too. For example, every order of nigiri comes with a dipping sauce Bertsch makes himself from low sodium soy sauce, kombu, vinegar, and sake.

    “It’s a complex sauce that’s less salty and tastes good,” he says. “You know when you don’t have it and you’re given cheap soy sauce.”

    Similarly, his California rolls use imitation crab (as do most restaurants), but it’s seasoned with a housemade, Japanese-style kewpie mayo, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and sesame oil for more umami and less sweetness. Since the chef uses more crab mix than other restaurants do in their rolls, Kaisen’s California roll not only tastes better — at $11.99, it’s a better value, too.

    The chef showcases Japanese techniques and Korean influences with his $25 steak bowl. A USDA Choice ribeye or strip is cooked sous vide with a marinade made from garlic, tamari, and seasoning salt. Once a diner orders the entree, the steak is seared in a pan, basted with Kerrygold butter, seasoned with furikake and sesame oil, and served with short-grain sushi rice and microgreens from local farm Zero Point Organics.

    Word of mouth has been building. Even though it’s only been open for a month, Kaisen already has over 2,000 followers on Instagram. Once he’s able to hire a full roster of cooks, Bertsch plans to expand the menu and offer lunch service. Despite some challenges, he’s pleased with the restaurant’s progress.

    “The support I've gotten on social media has blown me away,” he says. “It’s been amazing. I could not have done it without Instagram. It blows my mind.”

    Kaisen Sushi Houston nigiri
      

    Courtesy of Kaisen Sushi Houston

    Each order of nigiri comes with a house made sushi sauce.

    openingsnews-you-can-eatkaisen sushiinterviewchefs
    news/restaurants-bars
    Loading...