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CONTACT: Rebecca Robinson
The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas
512-327-7555 or 512-350-4621
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eighth Annual Stephan Pyles Celebrity Chef Dinner Raises Over $20,000 For Young Chefs
AUSTIN, TX (November 8, 2007) – On Sunday, November 4, 2007, five of Texas’ most celebrated chefs joined forces to create a spectacular five-course wine dinner. Their goal was to fund one of the nation’s largest culinary scholarships. The dinner, named for Texas culinary legend Stephan Pyles, and held at his critically-acclaimed namesake restaurant Stephan Pyles, is one of The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas’ most extraordinary culinary event. Proceeds fund the Foundation’s $15,000 Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship as well as a newly-created pastry scholarship, both administered by The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas. The event was sponsored in part by Central Market and Texas Monthly.
The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas is a statewide charitable Foundation (501c3) that supports education and research in the culinary and viticulture arts. Culinary scholarships are one of the many ways in which the Foundation fulfills its mission. Stephan Pyles is a long-time champion and Advisory member.
Guests were greeted with a champagne reception upon arrival and received five stunning courses, opening with Lobster Pumpkin Chowder with White Truffle Foam by Stephan Pyles, followed by a scallop course with White Corn Sorbet by Tyson Cole of Uchi in Austin, a recent contestant on Iron Chef America in September. Next, another Iron Chef America competitor appeared, the Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa’s David Bull, who served a Foie Gras Brulee. The Guinea Hen entrée was created by the Rosewood Mansion at Turtle Creek’s John Tesar, who recently received a coveted five-star rating from both the Dallas Morning News and Modern Luxury. Finally, guests were treated to the creative talent of Shannon Swindle of Craft, who delighted guests with a Forelle Pear Turnover and Mignardises.
Just prior to dessert, guests took a break from dining to bid on rare and unique wine lots at the live auction. Auctioneer Harvey Kronberg of Austin’s Quorum Report and Emcee Steve Tipton sold 18 lots including wine dinners at all the participating chef’s restaurant. Auction proceeds totaled over $14,000.
The Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship is held each spring and open to culinary students throughout Texas. The award is decided through an Iron-Chef style competition. Applicants create a three-course menu utilizing a pre-determined list of all-Texas ingredients. The top three finalists create their meals, which are judged blindly by a panel of culinary experts, including Chef Pyles. Food and restaurant writer Pat Sharpe of Texas Monthly oversees the judges panel each year and the competition is Chaired by Paris Cordon-Bleu trained Chef and Foundation member, Quincy Adams Erickson.
The 2007 Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship went to Ms. Tagan Gann-Couch of the Art Institute of Dallas. Originally from Wichita Falls, Texas, Gann-Couch holds an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico. Gann-Couch is the first Dallas scholarship winner since the competition’s inception seven years ago.
Applications for the 2008 Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship are available online to any currently enrolled culinary students on the Foundation website, www.winefoodfoundation.org and will be accepted through January, 2008.
About the Wine & Food Foundation of Texas
The Wine & Food Foundation of Texas is public charity founded in 1997 to support education and excellence in the culinary and viticulture arts. A membership organization, the Foundation provides scholarship and grants to innovative education projects in food and wine. To date, the Foundation has given over $1 million to support public television, scholarships and grant projects throughout the state.
About Stephan Pyles
Award-winning Chef Stephan Pyles, named Esquire Magazine’s “2006 Chef of the Year”, is a pioneer of New American Cuisine and legendary founding father of Southwestern Cuisine. In November 2005, Chef Pyles opened the first restaurant to bear his name. Stephan Pyles, named “Texas' Best New Restaurant of 2006” by Texas Monthly, is located within the Dallas Arts District just steps away from Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center and Meyerson Symphony Center. The restaurant employs architecture and design to salute the arts of fine cooking and dining.
The menu features New Millennium Southwestern Cuisine. It weaves a global food tapestry of tastes, flavors, and textures from Texas, from South America, from Spain, from the Mediterranean, from the Middle East, and from Chef Pyles’ many years of award-winning experience in devising and enhancing New American and Southwestern Cuisines.
The focal point of the restaurant is the display kitchen, inside a glass box shaped by a metallic geometric frame, that can be seen from throughout the space. There are three distinct dining rooms along with a tapas and ceviche bar, a communal dining table and a wine room as well as an al fresco terrace dining area. The private dining room doubles as a space for sharing Pyles’ expertise via cooking classes.
Illuminating design along with fine food will delight guests via the new restaurant’s sensual melding of ultra modern geometric shapes in metal and wood with vivid regional accents: Southwestern sunset and desert colors, stacked Texas flag stone, the mesquite and hickory smoke smells emanating from a wood-burning oven, rotisserie and grill.
Stephan Pyles restaurant (www.stephanpyles.com) is open for lunch (Monday through Friday) and dinner (Monday through Saturday). Located at 1807 Ross Avenue at St. Paul Street, reservations can be made by calling 214-580-7000.
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