Food and Drink

Sometimes I want to make cookies. Okay, I always want to make cookies. I don't know, there's just something about making cookies that makes me happy. Sometimes I even make them when I don't want to eat them. You might think that this isn't a problem because I could easily give my cookies to family and friends, but I have major anxiety about giving away cookies. I'm always worried that they're just saying that they want them but don't really because who knows what's going on in people's lives. Maybe they're on some sort of anti-cookie diet or they're too shy to say they don't like my cookies. I run through various scenarios – usually ones where they think my cookies are horrible – and generally drive myself crazy. I've decided that the best thing to do in cases like this are to not give away cookies. So, we always end up having a lot of cookies hanging around. Sometimes it makes me sad. But it also makes me happy because if I...

Angela Hernandez, opening executive chef at Fine China and the director of culinary operations at the Statler Hotel, will leave Dallas next week and move to Austin to take on a job with McGuire Moorman Hospitality. The group owns several restaurants in Austin and will soon be opening one in Aspen, Colorado. Hernandez, who is from Austin, cites family as a priority. "I've been traveling for 15 years," she says, referring to her time both in New York and in Dallas, where she opened Top Knot in 2016. The eclectic modern Asian spot, where Hernandez brought in her Korean and Latin American backgrounds, earned a spot on my D Magazine Best New Restaurants list that year, and Fine China, her modern Chinese destination for dim sum and Cantonese roast duck, cinched a spot on my list this year, despite some inconsistencies. Since Graham Dodds' departure from the Statler in October, Hernandez has absorbed his responsibilities. Joining a well-established group in Austin as ...

December 19, 2018 The most EPIC appetizer board ever! With an assortment of cheeses, figs, nuts, and pomegranate, this is the must-have holiday recipe! Guys, this is THE holiday appetizer you all need. MY OTHER RECIPES I'm serious. It's beautiful, it's festive, and it has four of my favorite cheeses – brie, manchego, provolone and Pepper Jack. Not to mention, this will be the easiest appetizer you will have to assemble during the holidays. Because guess what? There is absolutely no cooking involved here. Simply slice your cheeses, spread your crackers, crack open your pomegranate, and garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs for that holiday touch. To finish it off, pour the wine. Done. Holiday Cheese Board Yield: 12 servings Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 10 minutes The most EPIC appetizer board ever! With an assortment of cheeses, figs, nuts, and pomegranate, this is the must-have holiday recipe! Ingredients: 8 ...

This week's biggest dining scene news was that following the closing of Smoke, Tim Byres joined Stephan Pyles at the Arts District's Flora Street Café as managing director of Stephan Pyles Concepts. For those who know both Pyles and Byres, it will seem no surprise, in some ways. They will draw lines between both chefs' approaches to regional cooking, the insinuations of smoke, the idea of cooking over live fire. Byres was executive chef at the now-closed Stephan Pyles. (Chefs J Chastain, of The Charles, and Matt McCallister, of now-closed FT-33, have also gone through that kitchen.) He left to open Smoke. But in the recent years, his focus has turned increasingly towards a desire for storytelling with food. Less time on the line, more time curating experiences. Byres has worked on a dude ranch in Montana, creating intimate dining scenarios for 150 guests. These were the experiences he kept coming back to. "I was telling Stephan, we're gonna close [Smoke], and...

Whenever I travel to San Francisco and the East Bay to visit friends I've had since college—who decided to stay and live in the land of levain bread and housing prices you weep about routinely—I stop in at Berkeley's Cheese Board Collective for a sourdough English muffin. I sample the cheeses, of course, and maybe change things up with a Wolverine, filled with dried cherries and pecans. But nowhere have I had such English muffins, springy, tangy, lightly dusted with cornmeal and begging for toasting. I usually bundle at least one up and take it back to Dallas on the plane, though it's never the same. And I considered that nothing could get close, until D's Sourdough's English muffins came into the picture. If you are a fan of sourdough, you probably know the loaves that Debra Piedra makes, hand-crafted and long-fermented, using wild yeast and freshly milled organic flours. There are die-hard fans of her 7-grain, spelt, or einkorn wheat sourdough, her salted rose...

Whenever I travel to San Francisco and the East Bay to visit friends I've had since college—who decided to stay and live in the land of levain bread and housing prices you weep about routinely—I stop in at Berkeley's Cheese Board Collective for a sourdough English muffin. I sample the cheeses, of course, and maybe change things up with a Wolverine, filled with dried cherries and pecans. But nowhere have I had such English muffins, springy, tangy, lightly dusted with cornmeal and begging for toasting. I usually bundle at least one up and take it back to Dallas on the plane, though it's never the same. And I considered that nothing could get close, until D's Sourdough's English muffins came into the picture. If you are a fan of sourdough, you probably know the loaves that Debra Piedra makes, hand-crafted and long-fermented, using wild yeast and freshly milled organic flours. There are die-hard fans of her 7-grain, spelt, or einkorn wheat sourdough, her salted rose...