Sunday Brunch with Dean Fearing

Sometimes your fate is sealed for you, even before you realize it.  When we allow ourselves to search deep enough to find our true being, magical things can happen.  Dean Fearing, chef and owner of the highly acclaimed restaurant Fearings is joining us this week for our Sunday Brunch, featuring his famous Fried Quail with a fresh Heirloom Tomato Salad.

The legend begins in Eastern Kentucky right by the Ohio River where Fearing spent his childhood.  His father was a Kentucky innkeeper for several years. He’d work closely with Dean showing him the ropes of the business and often encouraging young Dean to explore the world of cooking.  But Fearing had something else in mind: playing music.  “My father so badly wanted me to work as a chef but my true love and passion was playing music.”

It wasn’t until Fearing came back to Louisville after college that he met a man who would change the course of his life—Harvey Culture.  He opened up young Fearing’s curiosity and fueled his fascination for the workings of a kitchen.  “He saw something in me.  He (Harvey) said you need to join up with me and I did and WOW I learned the world from him.” After two years, Fearing headed to study at the CIA in Hyde Park New York and upon graduation he came to Dallas.

“I started out at the Old Fairmont back in 78 as a young cook working as the poisson cook.  This whole town was all French or Italian or Continental – there weren’t any American restaurants, you know it was the old days.  So that’s what got me into Dallas.  I fell in love with Dallas; I fell in love with the spirit, the attitude of the people, the fact that it was an up and coming new city.  Dallas was new, bright, and I instantly just fell in love.”  

 

Fearing wanted to transform and reinvent American cuisine and using the ideas and techniques that he had learned during a trip to France. There he spent some time exploring the culinary creations of some of the best French masters in the culinary world at the time.  “It was my kind of threshold into American cuisine.  I saw what they were doing over there and said I can do this with American cuisine.  It really opened up my eyes what could be done and what should be done really, in the big picture.  I just felt I needed to do something regional. I came up with a lot of my Hispanic crew and I said teach me how to make a salsa. What’s a taco? What’s a real taco? What’s a real enchilada? All of that.  So I started working with my crew and understanding what Mexican cuisine was all about and taking that step to Southwest cuisine which is the Texas melting pot of great food.”

Widely known as the “Father of Southwestern Cuisine”, Fearing has rocked not only the food world here in Texas but in the whole United States.  Having received a James Beard Foundation nomination for Best New Restaurant, named Restaurant of the Year and Table of the year in Esquire Magazine, numerous accolades from The New York Times, Newsweek, Food and Wine, Texas Monthly, and Modern Luxury – Fearing’s list of recognition for his talent in the restaurant world is numerous.

After working 20-plus year at The Mansion, he opened up Fearing’s in August 2007 at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas.  A reflection of his personal vision and design, the lively, comfortable restaurant features seven stylish dining settings, including the most distinctive alfresco experience in Dallas and a popular interactive display kitchen offering ringside seating for true foodies. “Texas has great game coming from the South, great fish coming out of the Gulf, we have our indigenous products such as mangoes, cilantro, limes, chiles, peppers, so you know for me, it was like wow I have all these new paints to paint with.  So since then started working with it, one step at a time, one dish at a time and 30 years later, you know here we are.”

And what a beautiful masterpiece dear Fearing has created.

 

Fearing’s serves brunch from 11:15am- 3:00pm on Sundays. 

Sunday Brunch with Tim Byres

There are many qualities that define a good chef: a well organized kitchen, an inviting dining space, and certainly delicious food that’ll keep you coming back for more.  But what makes a great chef?  At Smoke, Chef and co-owner Tim Byres is finding the roots of great food again.  He pushes the limit when it comes to finding resources and suppliers for ingredients and goes even further with going back to basic good ‘ole fashion cooking techniques.  This week for Sunday Brunch, Chef Byres will be sharing his infamous Blueberry Pancakes served with Vanilla Poached Apricots and Fresh Cream.

 

Byres first discovered his love for cooking through family get togethers, he often helped his mother prepare for backyard parties, relishing in the energy and hospitality that came along with entertaining.  “There’s this service, fun, unpretentious kind of happiness that happens at these parties that I hope to share with people.”

During high school Byres started working as a busboy at restaurants and soon after decided to attend Johnson and Wales in Miami. Upon graduating, he worked under Jonathan Eismann from The Pacific Times at the age of 18 and from there he went on to work at several other prestigious restaurants including Stephan Pyles and The Mansion in Dallas.

Dallas is lucky to have a gem like Smoke.  Chef Byres really wants to bring diners back to the basics again with good old-fashioned recipes like breads made from scratch, house-cured and smoked meats and pickled vegetables, along with sweet and savory jams.  It’s this beautiful earthy simplicity geared towards renewing the reminiscence of how cooking use to be: simple, natural, and family-styled.

“They call it heritage inspired food but you know it’s more like old fashioned American cooking, like with wood fire cooking.  We have all these lost recipes that really aren’t done anymore because now you just buy bread from the stores, pickles in jars…I want to bring it all back.”

What a magical wonder he’s created.  The most beautiful part of it all is how Byres strives to make diners feel right at home with a simple dose of Southern hospitality where the forks and knives may not match, but rest assured you’ll always leave Smoke with a happy stomach and a full heart.

“I’m trying to demystify any real funky ole recipe that no one knows about and then bring them out in a fun way.  Also there’s just a certain nostalgia level to everything – when this place [Smoke] gets busy people will start talking to other tables around them.  I’ll even have long tables full of friends and family that share a family-styled meal together.  So if you’re in this real fancy fuddy duddy formal arena, you don’t get any of that.  I guess breaking some of those rules down and bringing it back to what it was, you know the beginning.”

 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Chef Byres was selected as The People’s Best New Chef by Food and Wine magazine this year.  He is after all a great chef: he respects the history of American cooking; he strives to find only the very best local ingredients through developing close relationships with farmers and purveyors; he goes to great lengths in ensuring that every diner has a fun, memorable and comforting experience.  It’s chefs like Byres that makes food feel alive again, nourishing our minds, bodies and souls.

Visit Smoke for brunch served every weekend from 8am-3pm.

Whisk cake flour, all purpose flour, and next 3 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk milk and eggs in medium bowl. Gradually whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients. Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter.

Heat griddle or 2 heavy large nonstick skillets over medium heat. Brush lightly with additional melted butter. Working in batches, pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto griddle. Sprinkle each pancake with 1 heaping tablespoon blueberries. Cook until bottoms brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn pancakes over and cook until second sides brown, about 1 minute. Divide pancakes among plates. Serve with syrup.

Recipe for Honey Vanilla Poached Apricots from Epicurious

• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
• 3/4 pound fresh apricots, halved lengthwise and pitted

In a 1 1/2-quart saucepan simmer water, honey, sugar, and vanilla bean, covered, 5 minutes. Add apricots and simmer, covered, until just tender but not falling apart, 2 to 5 minutes, depending on ripeness of fruit.

Transfer apricots with a slotted spoon to a bowl and boil syrup until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Pour syrup over apricots and chill 25 minutes.

 

Sunday Brunch with Tre Wilcox

This week I had a very special guest for my Sunday Brunch series over at Crave DFW – Tre Wilcox from Marquee Grill and also one of my favorite contenders on Top Chef All-Stars, shared his scrumptious “Bacon” and Waffles.

While trying to keep composure, I fortunately did not bust ass in front of Chef Wilcox as I previously had with Chef Temperini, but I’m not gonna lie — I was nervous.  I mean here he was, this culinary superstar whom I so admired for his leadership, calm nature in his art, was sitting in front of me with his arms crossed with Discipline & No Regret inked down his forearm.

A small bead of sweat rolled down my face, he wasn’t going to kick my ass for asking too many questions….was he?  Thank fully he spared me but not without giving me a hard time first.  We chatted about Marquee Grill, how he started his passion for cooking, the things that inspire him and I HAD to ask him ONE top chef question.  Find out more about my interview over at Crave DFW with the wonderful Chef Tre Wilcox.