Aaron Bludorn’s Journey from Chef to Restaurateur in Houston

In El Paso, chef Emiliano Marentes is preserving Mexican culinary traditions while infusing them with a modern sensibility. At ELEMI, his intimate taco-focused restaurant, Marentes makes tortillas from scratch through the ancient process known as nixtamalization but takes a contemporary approach to plating. He joins SAVEUR editor-in-chief Kat Craddock to talk fresh masa, Sunday menudo, and his hometown of El Paso. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Fort Worth’s Panther City BBQ, pitmasters Chris Magallanes and Ernest Morales are blending Tex-Mex tradition with smoky innovation in dishes like brisket guisada and pork belly jalapeño poppers. The duo joins host Stephanie Burt for a conversation on the importance of community, their penchant for post oak wood, and why barbecue is best when shared. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top Chef alum Tiffany Derry brings wood-fire technique, family recipes, and Southern pride to Dallas at Roots Southern Table. In this conversation with SAVEUR contributing editor Ellen Fort, Derry dishes on gumbo, sustainability, and why representation in food media is vital—alongside reflections on her early forays into the restaurant business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Aaron Bludorn is building a Gulf Coast fine dining empire in Houston, Texas. Joined by host Alyse Whitney, he discusses the region’s local seafood, Houston’s adventurous dining community, and how his newest restaurant, Perseid, reflects the city’s diversity. Don’t miss this deep dive into Houston’s status as one of the most exciting culinary frontiers in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, chef Edgar Rico is pushing the boundaries of Austin’s taco culture with duck fat, fermentation, and Oaxacan corn. In this episode, he sits down with host Meena Thiruvengadam to talk taco innovation, vegetable-forward menus, and why Austin was the perfect place to build a community-centric restaurant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Antonio-born chef Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin of Best Quality Daughter brings personal history, Asian American identity, and nostalgic flavors to her restaurant in the heart of the city’s Pearl District. In conversation with writer Dan Q. Dao, Dobbertin explores why restaurants are essential third spaces—and why creating a joyful, design-forward environment matters just as much as the menu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When she opened her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1971, Alice Waters had no plans for pioneering California cuisine or launching the farm-to-table movement across the U.S. But following her passion for market-fresh, seasonal cooking—sparked by a trip to France as a student—led her to work directly with local organic farmers and spotlight the origins of each ingredient on her menu. Those ideals have since reshaped the entire American food landscape, from grocery stores to fine dining restaurants to even the public school system. In 1995, Waters founded the Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley, which now includes a network of thousands of schools around the world. Drawing on her training as a Montessori teacher, the non-profit empowers students to grow and cook their own food—and, in the process, addresses issues like climate change, social inequality, and public health. Waters has also been a vocal advocate for national school lunch reform, calling on presidents such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama to promote the benefits of healthy eating. Despite her massive impact and a career that spans more than half a century, the educator, chef, activist, and author has kept a fairly low profile. At 78, she continues to plant seeds of change and is even celebrating a few firsts. If you want to support the Edible Schoolyard Project, head here (until December 31 an anonymous donor is matching all amounts). You can also learn more about Chez Panisse here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Honeysuckle Provisions, co-founders Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate are offering something comfortingly familiar but also radically new. Their Afrocentric grocery store and cafe opened last month in West Philadelphia to serve a neighborhood where fresh, organic produce and healthy food options were in short supply. Building on over a decade of experience working as chefs mostly in New York City—with both also running successful pop-ups until the pandemic hit—the couple wanted to create a different kind of food space. Honeysuckle Provisions directly supports Black farmers, dismantles toxic kitchen culture, and celebrates Black foodways with menu highlights like the BLACKenglish muffin (named after a James Baldwin essay), or a cup of the COWPEAcoffee (a nod to George Washington Carver). Throughout their careers, both chefs have used food as an outlet for sparking impactful conversations: Omar is an artist and poet, who was named Esquire’s Chef of the Year in 2020 and was featured on the Time100 Next list in 2021. Cybille has cooked at the James Beard House, appeared on the TV show Chopped, and explores her Haitian heritage through culinary projects like a recent dinner hosted with the family of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the last three years, the couple fell in love, got married, had a baby (with a second on the way), and launched Honeysuckle Provisions—but, as you’ll hear, they’re just getting started.  To see what’s on the menu (and in the online shop) at Honeysuckle Provisions, head here. You can also learn more about Omar and Cybille’s work here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cheese grader and affineur Chris Gentine sees infinite possibilities in transforming an already excellent cheddar into something new and unexpected. Along with his wife, Julie, Gentine is at the creative heart of Deer Creek Cheese, the company they founded in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. Building on the state's classic cheeses as a base, the couple then infuses their own special alchemy of flavors, from juniper berries to green chartreuse. They work closely with master cheesemakers in the area—and by extension, small local dairy farms—to craft award-winning cheeses that celebrate the unique terroir. Beyond the borders of Wisconsin, Gentine is also a kind of ambassador for American cheesemakers through his Artisan Cheese Exchange, which exports specialty U.S. cheeses around the world. Connecting the two projects is Gentine’s deep respect for centuries-old techniques and a collaborative approach that starts with his family (the Gentines’ daughter, Sophie, is following in her father’s footsteps to become a licensed cheese grader)—and extends to the larger cheese community. For a taste of Deer Creek Cheese, and to learn more about their process, head here. You can also find details on Henning’s Cheese here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since opening Bạn Bè last year, Doris Hồ-Kane has sparked a fast-growing following. As New York City’s first Vietnamese American bakery, the small-but-ambitious space is dedicated to celebrating Vietnamese food and community. Hồ-Kane’s butter cookie tin (featuring ingredients like tamarind, ube, and sesame) quickly garnered a 10,000-person waiting list when it started popping up in Instagram feeds. Now, customers line up for her glowing green pandan-coconut waffles and agar jellies shaped like cherry blossoms. As visually impactful as they are, Hồ-Kane’s delicious creations also tell the story of her experience as a child of refugees—and the importance of representation and creative expression. She explores these same themes in her art archive project 17.21 Women, a collection she started as a teen and now shares on Instagram (and in a forthcoming book) that spotlights remarkable Asian and Pacific Islander women throughout history. As you’ll hear, Hồ-Kane offers nourishment and inspiration through her food, her art, and the space they share at Bạn Bè. To find the latest Bạn Bè menu and news, visit @ban__be. To support the bakery in opening full-time, head to the fundraiser here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices