| CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Wishing on a Star Why don’t any Dallas spots have Michelin stars? BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 4434 Harry Hines (near Market Center) Near Medical/Design District 214-521-0992 • OriginalMarketDiner.com What needs to happen?” Good question. While Dallas has two Michelin-starred chefs, those awards were given to restaurants in other states. The chefs work here now or also have restaurants here. Michelin guides are only produced for A THURS OCT. 27 DICKIES ARENA, FORT WORTH WIN TICKETS! A PAIR OF DALLASOBSERVER.COM/ FREE/CHRISSTAPLETON 12 12 certain cities in the U.S., and none of them are in Texas. Since there aren’t guides here, there aren’t stars directing hungry travelers to wonderful restaurants. The Michelin restaurant guide was first published by Andre and Edouard Michelin in 1889 in France to encourage drivers to burn rubber from town to town, thus wear- ing down the tread of their eponymous tires. The gastronomic guide landed in North America in 2006, with New York City. Since then it’s expanded to the Bay Area, Los An- geles County, Las Vegas and Chicago, and then in 2022, Miami, Orlando and Tampa were added, as well as Toronto. For Dallas, the designation of a Michelin- starred restaurant now comes by proxy. Last week, longtime Dallas chef John Tesar re- ceived one Michelin star for his restaurant Knife & Spoon in Orlando. And, yes, we had Knife first. So, this doesn’t seem fair at all. A bit of background on our newly minted Michelin-starred chef: After a culinary school in Paris, Tesar cooked in top restaurants in New York and Las Vegas. He even spent some time alongside Anthony Bourdain. Tesar came to Dallas in 2006 by way of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. Jump ahead to 2014, and the four-time James Beard “Best Southwest Chef” semifi- nalist opened Knife inside The Highland Dal- las hotel and expanded to Plano a few years later. Spoon was a seafood concept that Tesar ran for a couple of years but closed in 2014 as other things were taking off. He appeared on Top Chef twicem, and he also has one of the best burgers in the city called The Ozersky. Knife has a trophy case full of ribbons and awards including many best steakhouse acco- lades from this publication and others locally. Esquire named Knife the “Best New Restau- rant” in 2014, and it was also on Zagat’s “Hot- test New Restaurants” list. Further, Esquire anointed Knife as one of “The 40 Most Impor- tant Restaurants of the Decade” for the 2010s. So, a Michelin star? Sounds like Knife few weeks ago, @Dallasguy2 on Twitter posed a question: Q: “When are we going to be the first city/metro in Texas to get a Michelin star? Kathy Tran would be on a shortlist. Only not in Texas. Tesar had to take his concept to the Ritz-Carl- ton in Orlando, which he did in 2020. At a ceremony on June 9, Tesar’s Knife and Spoon made the inaugural list of Michelin- starred restaurants in Florida. From the guide: “Care and skill are the hallmarks of this team, as they turn out contemporary steak- house fare woven with seafood. ... The dry- aged steaks are big and beautiful, and sides are attention-grabbing, evidenced by the house- made pasta in the luscious mac and cheese.” “It’s truly an honor and a dream come true,” Tesar said via email the next morning. “I feel like this is not only a tribute to my amazing staff but it’s also for everyone I have ever worked with, and for all chefs who never get the recognition they deserve. There is a star in everyone, you just have to find it.” When asked what it might take for Texas to get a guide for our vast state — both in terms of geography and cuisine — Tesar says the major cities will need to work together, “If Texas can come together, Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio, I truly believe any- thing is possible when it comes to Michelin.” To gain a Michelin star, restaurants must excel in five areas: quality products, mastery of flavor and cooking techniques, personality of the chef in the cuisine, value for money and consistency. We reached out to another longtime Dal- las chef who previously held the title as the only chef in Dallas with a Michelin star, Bruno Davaillon. He recently relaunched Up on Knox to what is now Knox Bistro, his vi- sion for causal, elegant French cuisine de- rived from his roots in France’s Loire Valley. “I think Dallas came a long way as a po- tential Michelin guide city,” Davaillon said in an email. “I have seen a lot of improve- ment and diversity in our Dallas restaurants over the past 10 years, and the talent is in- creasing immensely.” Davaillon says he could see a few restau- rants in Dallas getting one star, and more in the Bib Gourmand category, which rewards great food with great value. In terms of Texas’ full potential, he says, Dallas is still a little bit behind Austin and Houston as far as a concentration of high-cali- ber Michelin-worthy restaurants, “but we are definitely improving immensely as a city and quickly becoming a culinary destination.” Davaillon guesses that Texas is probably up next on Michelin’s radar. “We have some of the John Tesar in the dry-aging room at Knife in Dallas. largest growing and heavily populated cities in the U.S., all with a reputation as great dining destinations. Houston is a big market for din- ing and hospitality, as well as Austin, and now I think Dallas is reaching that way, as well.” ▼ EAT THIS MELTING POT comes to eating out at Indian restaurants, expectations run high. For Indian fusion places, blending flavors that complement each other well can be a challenge. With that being said, there are restaurants in Dallas that are bringing cultures, flavors and cui- sines together magnificently. Here are five great local Indian fusion places to try: A Ame 418 N. Bishop Ave. (Bishop Arts District) This restaurant is known for bringing tradi- tional Indian flavors to dishes by using French cooking techniques to make them unique. The menu includes vegetarian and non-vegetarian options as well as a number of vegan and glu- ten-free items. You can enjoy dishes like their cashew chicken tikka or a masala baked egg- plant with a side of naan puffs and saffron rice. You can sip on a raspberry lassi and finish your meal with a decadent chocolate panna cotta. Tikka Taco 825 W. Royal Lane, #120 (Irving) There’s plenty of flavor in Indian food and there’s a certain kick in Mexican food. When you bring those two cuisines together, that fu- sion goes to another level. The menu at Tikka Taco consists of Mexican dishes that are filled with Indian flavor with a Mumbai street food flare. For entrées, choose between a taco, wrap or a salad, with stuffing like tandoori chicken or paneer tikka then add any sauce or extra toppings. You can also enjoy sides and appetiz- ers like tikka queso and Desi wings. Desi District Various locations This place makes traditional Indian >> p13 FIVE INDIAN FUSION PLACES TO TRY IN DALLAS. BY DANIELLE ZACHARIAH ny Indian American will tell you that spicy and flavorful food is a sta- ple on the dinner table. So when it JUNE 23–29, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | dallasobserver.com
