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There's food here! We swear! Photo: Michael Paulsen
The internet was alive this week with chatter about season nine of the Bravo reality show Top Chef, and whether it will be set in Texas. The signs point to yes: there were numerous sightings of cast and crew in San Antonio recently, at venues from Whole Foods Market to the newly restored Esquire Tavern on the Riverwalk. Tom Colicchio, Padma, Gail Simmons ... the gang was all there, eating and drinking and (reportedly) trying to shut down random Tweeters.
The website Eater National (a sort of TMZ for the foodie set) speculated — under the banner “Rumormongering” — that the show would go on to shoot in Dallas and Austin in coming weeks. Houston was conspicuous in its absence from that list.
Sources at Bravo wouldn’t confirm anything about a Texas schedule to the Chronicle, and who knows? Top Chef could end up here for a few days yet. But if they don’t, they’ll be missing out big time on the most varied and dynamic dining scene in the state — one that defies and expands upon the usual Texas clichés.
San Antonio, Austin and Dallas simply can’t compare to the ethnic richness and interplay that are a hallmark of Houston restaurants, where cuisines from Vietnamese to Indian have become part of a common culinary vocabulary our chefs feel free to draw on, right along with the vital strains of Mexican, smokehouse and cowboy cookery for which the state is more generally known. And Houston is unique in Texas for the strong currents of Cajun, Creole and Deep Southern cuisine that infuse our cooking.
No other Texas city boasts the variety of Gulf seafood that we do, either. It’s no surprise that recent moves to classify Texas oysters by bay and reef appellations, or to bring the unusual marine species known as ‘bycatch” to market, have originated here in Houston. Top Chef would be lucky to snag our local Gulf seafood gurus Jim Gossen and P. J. Stoops, both of Louisiana Foods, for an on-air seafood challenge that could provide some dramatic TV moments.
And sorry, but Houston’s got it all over those other cities in terms of progressive dining, from our handful of talented young modernist chefs and foragers to our exciting culinary underground of pop-ups, collaborative dinners and a flourishing food truck scene that may soon rival Austin’s.
Sure, San Antonio may offer more picturesque locations for filming. It’s hard to argue against such iconic sites as the Alamo or the Spanish missions or the Riverwalk; not to mention such a spectacular ready-made shooting venue as the Culinary Institute of America branch in the Pearl Brewery Complex, with its modern architecture, farmer’s market and hot restaurant scene. And yes, Austin has the Capitol, the water, the scenery and the mother of all Whole Foods, which has been Top Chef’s ingredient source in so many cities.
But Dallas surely doesn’t offer more intuitive shooting venues than Houston does. Think of our grandly scaled Asiatown that runs for so many miles along Bellaire, and its possibilities for interesting chef challenges. Consider our epic ethnic grocery stores, from HMart to Hong Kong Market to Phoenica Specialty Foods and beyond. I’d love to see a bunch of cheftestants trying to get their heads around one of those stores. Think of the comic possibilities. Talk about good TV!
Bottom line, if Top Chef stays away from Houston on their march through Texas, they’re messing up. Not that that would be unprecedented. After all, they’re shooting in Texas in July.
DALLAS?? REALLY??? Dallas is the epitome of pretentious, overrated and overpriced food.
And, in regard to your Whole Foods musings, Houston has Central Market, which is FAR superior!!!
Houston is a swamp with great strip clubs.
Hmmmm, swamp with great strip clubs and a bigger economic impact than any other Texas city can claim.
Method: To conduct this portion of the analysis, we looked at data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on the breakdown of US GDP by metropolitan area (MSA). Data is available from 2001 to 2009. We also included population data estimates from the US Census Bureau for 2000 to 2010. Comparisons were made between the top 25 MSA's as ranked by 2010 population. All GDP figures are nominal (i.e., don't account for inflation). The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for US urban consumers was used to estimate inflation rates.
Basic findings (about Houston):
1. From 2001 to 2009, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA's portion of GDP grew from about $233 billion to about $363 billion (56%). This was the highest growth rate of the MSA's examined.
2. Houston's population grew by 1,231,393 from 2000 to 2010, the most of any MSA examined. Second was the DFW MSA, at +1,210,229. Also, Houston's population grew by 126% over this period. This is the third-highest growth rate of the MSA's examined - behind Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA (130%) and Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ (129%).
3. Houston's share of the total US GDP has grown from 2.54% in 2001 to 2.88% in 2009. The latter is the fifth highest of the MSA's studied. Also, the increase in this share - +13.29% - is the highest of the MSA's studied. (Washington was second, with an increase of +12.57%.)
4. Houston's per capita GDP (i.e., attributed GDP divided by MSA population) ranked 6th of the largest MSA's in 2009, at about $62k. The top 5 were: San Francisco ($78k); Washington ($74k); Seattle ($67k); Boston ($65k); and New York ($63k). Other peer cities to Houston in terms of population are: Philadelphia (#11 -- $56k); DFW (#12 -- $55k); Atlanta (#16 -- $48k); and Miami (#18 -- $46k).
5. Houston fell in the middle of the pack (11 of 25) in terms of its per capita GDP growth from 2001 to 2009. This figure grew by 29% over this period. Compare this to the top 5: San Diego (+41%); Washington (+39%); San Francisco (+36%); Los Angeles (36%); and Baltimore (+35%). Five large MSA's exhibited per capita GDP growth of less than the total inflation rate of 21% from 2001 to 2009: Riverside-San Bernardino; Dallas-Fort Worth; Phoenix; Atlanta; and Detroit.
If they have a "Top Chef Texas" and fail to show up in the largest city here, that would be an absolute travesty. Surely they are not that stupid.
They can't go to all the cities stop acting like a bunch of crybabies. San Antonio gets chosen and all the other Texas cities start bickering, hilarious. I agree Houston is a great food town....and what if it is? to bad so sad....next. I saw a list not to long ago and Dallas and San Antonio had the most 4 star diamond restaurants and hotels, followed by Houston then tiny tot Austin.
Maybe they should go to the town in Texas with the best food? What does being "big" have to do with it? Typical Texan attitude. The food in Houston sucks.
if the food in houston sucks, why are you reading houston based food blogs?
How would you like to live in an urban war zone like Chicago? I'd move back to Houston in a heart beat!
They can't go to all the cities stop acting like a bunch of crybabies. San Antonio gets chosen and all the other Texas cities start bickering, hilarious. I agree Houston is a great food town....and what if it is? to bad so sad....next. I saw a list not to long ago and Dallas and San Antonio had the most 4 star diamond restaurants and hotels, followed by Houston then tiny tot Austin.
Whole Foods and Central Market both started in Austin.
And?
The undertone of this article is Houston's diversity, and that's reflected in the food scene here. No other city in Texas can compare, and less than a handful of cities across the US can. (Sorry, but diversity is a statistical fact!)
I think Houston is too tough for them. I seriously think Houston has become so cutting edge, they wouldn't know how to deal with that much diversity. Our top restaurants work with really unique ingredients. I can imagine Hugo Ortega explaining cricket tamales, or Caswell & Rucker explaining trash fish used in raw preparations with foraged & unique food seasons we have or bone marrow not only roasted and served on toast or what our chefs have to go through with trying to produce charcuterie with Houston food laws and seeing the contestants brains explode.
Who knows maybe it's the food laws are so jacked up here it puts so many restrictions on the show it's not worth the hassle?
I agree, we are too much, too big and too good for them to deal with.
They can't not come to Houston. That would be the biggest mistake ever.
Man, when your argument for Houston rests on a couple of people from a company called LOUISIANA seafood, you know you're in trouble!
Local seafood and local preps need to be established here like they are in New Orleans and Seattle. Hasn't happened yet.
Top Chef is likely shooting in Dallas because Colicchio has a Craft restaurant there.
Bingo.
A Dallas restaurant critic just @tweeted me that Colicchio spends a lot of time dining around in Dallas. Now it is making a lot more sense to me that the show would bypass Houston in Dallas's favor. He's familiar with the city; knows the scene; feels comfortable there; probably has ideas about shooting locations, etcetera. Plus there's a financial tie in.
He has a Craft restaurant in Dallas. We had oyster mushrooms at craft Atlanta. My wife was like "this is okay but i can do it much better." we get back, go to ranch 99, and she makes the same dish but executes the sear, salt/seasoning, and overall doneness so much better. and i've done a braised short rib, my first attempt, that i feel was better than craft's. case in point with h-town, top chef simply cannot hang.
I'm a working chef and used to live (and work) in Houston. It's getting better, and there is definitely some beautiful, diverse foods, especially on the outskirts of the city, but I think Top Chef would not be missing much if they skipped over Houston. Not yet anyway. It's still just too young and unestablished as a great food city. 10-20 years from now I'm sure that won't be the case, but for now it's still a few steps behind places on the West Coast and 4-5 behind NYC. And someone mentioned Hugo's, which I agree creates some brilliant dishes, but the other night I dined there and all 3 specials (all 3!) had jumbo lump crab in them! WTF is up with Houston's jumbo lump crab fetish?? Most of that stuff doesn't even come from the Gulf - it's from the Atlantic Ocean. I can't tell you how many times I've dined out in Houston, heard the "special" fish of the day, only to learn that it was topped with jumbo lump crab. If I want crab, let me order crab - if I want a particular fish, let me taste THAT FISH! Someone above argued roasted bone marrow?? That's definitely not unique, new or cutting edge. And I have yet to eat sushi in Houston where the rice has any noticeable level of seasoning (vinegar, sugar, etc.). In fact, the owner of one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in Houston admitted to me he stopped using seasoned rice because the Houston customers complained and didn't like/understand it. And that's just some of my remembrance of the city and why if it does get passed over, I think Top Chef would have made a wise choice.
Thank you. Most Houstonians have the palates of five-year-olds. Give them some mac & cheese with a cut up hot dog.
One Hungry Troll. Offer up something constructive.
"beautiful, diverse foods, especially on the outskirts of the city." That is a very interesting comment, especially from someone who wrote that they once cooked in the city. Do tell. All of the most interesting eateries are inside the Loop or in the Galleria with the exception of a handful of French-themed or -inspired options, and one of those is in the city limits.
And, that Japanese restaurant, I am going to guess it is not one of ones that is Japanese-owned.
Oh please. Houston has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the U.S. and that was 5+ years ago. Cost of Living and the supporting job market allow our diverse cultures to open up brick&mortar (non-food truck) restaurants very easily. Outskirts of Houston? Once again just light-years away from accuracy. What about the 300+ vietnamese, chinese, taiwanese restaurants on bellaire, what about vietnamese food downtown, little india on hilcroft, our bounty of 4 diamond 5 star michelin star and worthy restaurants inner loop, our proximity to the gulf which is why we have amazing seafood, back to our asian population who demand great seafood, oh you want african, ethopian food? how about central american, south american, polish, bosnian, on and endlessly on. Look how there isn't one fish dish on Hugo's menu that has lump crab on it. It might have been an option the waiter offered, just like people try to shave truffle or dollop caviar on any dish. The best part about Houston is that we have enough Houstonians to sustain and grow our awesomeness, while the tourists pass us over, and the d-bags move away. No city in Texas should be allowed to even wash our santoku knife. And one last thing, you must eat at awful sushi restaurants. It's rice vinegar not vinegar and you forgot mirin. From our japanese population to our chinese & taiwanese presence, we know how to make sushi rice thank you very much. I've seen hispanic sushi chefs craft delicious, correctly prepared sushi. I think it's very telling that "your favorite sushi chef" uses unseasoned rice. That's on you, not on the countless great sushi restaurants in H-Town. I know I cratered and did the "omg people are wrong on the internet, i must fix this", but it really gets me when people trash h-town cuisine and they don't know what they're talking about.
having spent quite a bit of time in the military and having traveled quite a bit due to work transfers, the majority of the US holds all things Dallas in higher regards than Houston. As a native Houstonian this is at times hard to believe but, its has been pretty constant in my experience. So, this, plus Tom C. having a place in Dallas seems to equate to Htown being left out.
This AC article was linked today by eater.com in an article that says Houston is in, turned down play to play, and makes you wonder if the other cities did pony up pay to play cash (San Antonio I'm looking at you!)
http://eater.com/archives/2011/07/11/top-chef-texas-houston-is-in-plus-p...
Easy enough response to all this. We can watch the show, and if indeed Houston is left out of the itinerary, we can bombard the Bravo website and Tom C.'s blog entries with messages about how much better that episode could have been/that ingredient could have been sourced/that cuisine could have been showcased/that topic could have been explained in Houston. He does read the comments to his blog, and at the very least, a very vocal following and outcry from the show's fans here in H-town should register in his cranium.
Johnchef if you USE to live in Houston how the heck do you know what the restaurant situation is here now? The quality and diversity of foods cannot be matched anywhere in Texas....PERIOD.
Good lord, I could care less if they do skip Houston. Their loss. Craft in NYC is overrated. Foie gras was good, but steak was dramatically below average compared to a Houston steakhouse. No other city in Texas possesses the capability to contest Houston's food scene and never will. To say otherwise is to profess one's lack of a cultured palate loudly. Houston has enough douchebags on Washington Ave and we certainly don't need Tom C to +1 that number. I hope they enjoy the curried crawfish etouffee and variety of pho options in Dallas. Oh wait, they won't be able to.
It was a pay-to-play situation, folks. They werent even considering if we had great food or not, just if Houston wanted to pay to be on the show, like San Antonio is paying.
What a load of overdone bile. Houston has some nice eateries and passable Tex Mex, but I have yet to find any one palce where I was so impressed that i would gladlyu return again and again because the food was that spectacular. One of the main reasons I dont eat out as often as I used to is because of the disappointment in the food and service at most places I chose to eat, and I most certainly did not go to Casa Ole thinking I would getting anything more than tortillas smothered with cheese and or a faux cile con carne worth a damn. I can recommend Hugos and Taste of Texas, Brenners and Rio Ranch. I also highly recomment Rudy Lechners for some good German food. But honestly as someone else noted, Houstonians do not have a very good pallets when it comes to taste. Who cares if that dumb show comes to Houston or not, enjoy what you have.
To me the question came down to Dallas vs Houston, San Antonio and Austin aren't the same scenes and provide uniqueness for the show without duplication. I'm not saying Dallas and Houston are the same, but both have plenty of great restaurants, both are massive areas with around 6M residents (Houston has the bigger city, Dallas the bigger metro), and both have tons of choice from Asian to Latin American to New American to everything else. I've lived in both cities, am fond of both cities and would have enjoyed the show in both cities.
The difference to me is two primary things:
1. Dallas has always had the limelight socially and that's just a fact. From the TV show to America's Team, for whatever reason Dallas got the nod.
2. Tom Colicchio's only restaurant in Texas is in Dallas (and his buddy Wolfgang Puck also has a restaurant in Dallas). If all else was the same, this was the difference. The cast is staying in the W where he has his restaurant and he's obviously able to drive traffic to his restaurant by simply people wanting to see where the chefs stayed.
It sucks for Houston, but Dallas won (again). I do have to say I'm going to miss not having the gulf flair, nobody in Texas can match the creole and gulf melting pot of flavors.