Eighth Annual Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship Cook-off
March 2, 2008

About Stephan Pyles...

Stephan Pyles, a fifth generation Texan and pioneer of New American Cuisine, has created 14 restaurants over the past 22 years. A founding father of Southwestern Cuisine, he was the first Texan inducted into The James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America and Bon Appétit has credited him with "almost single-handedly changing the cooking scene in Texas". The New York Times has called Pyles "an absolute genius in the kitchen". In 2006, Esquire named Pyles "Chef of the Year" and included his newest restaurant, Stephan Pyles, in their list of "Best New Restaurants". Texas Monthly named Pyles one of the "twenty most impressive, intriguing, and influential Texans for 1998" and in their February 2007 issue named his restaurant, Stephan Pyles, "Best New Restaurant of 2006".

While chef and owner of Routh Street Cafe and Baby Routh (1983-1993) and Goodfellow's and Tejas in Minneapolis (1987-1993), Pyles was the recipient of numerous awards including the AAA Five Diamond Award; Nation's Restaurant News' Fine Dining Hall of Fame Award; Restaurants and Institutions' Ivy Award and the American Academy of Achievement Award. He was the inaugural recipient of The James Beard Foundation's award for Best Chef in America-Southwest in 1991 and has been given the Outstanding Restaurateur of the Year award by both the Minnesota Restaurant and the Texas Restaurant Associations.

In 1994, Pyles opened Star Canyon and during his tenure there, it was on the lists of "best new restaurants" in Esquire, Bon Appetit and Town and Country. It was named one of the top five new restaurants in America by the James Beard Foundation, and in March 1998, Playboy, polling 100 top food critics, named it one of America's top twenty-five restaurants. The September 1998 issue of Food and Wine listed Star Canyon as the "quintessential Dallas restaurant" and in the same year, Pyles received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from Share Our Strength, America's largest hunger-relief organization.

In 1997, Pyles opened AquaKnox, a global seafood restaurant, to critical acclaim and was named best new restaurant by Food and Wine. Pyles sold Star Canyon and AquaKnox to Carlson Restaurants WorldWide in 1998 and during the next two years opened for them Star Canyons in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel and Resort and at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel in Austin. He also developed two new concepts for the company, FishBowl, an Asian restaurant and a casual Mexican restaurant called

Taqueria Cañonita, which was replicated in several cities around the country. In late 2000, with the transition completed, Pyles left CRW to pursue his favorite activities, traveling and researching, consulting, writing, teaching and producing television-cooking shows.

He has cooked for dignitaries and celebrities from HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Mikhail Gorbachev to Mick Jagger and Sharon Stone. He has appeared around the world as guest celebrity chef and was one of five chefs worldwide invited to prepare dinner for Jimmy Carter's 70th birthday.

Pyles' first cookbook, The New Texas Cuisine, published by Doubleday, was named by Bon Appetit as one of the top ten chef's cookbooks of the decade (1990's) and is now in its ninth printing. Pyles has also co-authored Tamales, published by McMillan and New Tastes from Texas, which is the companion piece to his Emmy-award winning nationally syndicated PBS television series by the same name. He also hosted a weekly cooking segment on the Texas ABC affiliate, which aired throughout the state. In addition, he has appeared frequently on such national programs as Good Morning America and The Today Show. His fourth cookbook, Southwestern Vegetarian, was published by Clarkson-Potter, a division of Random House in 2001.

Pyles is a founding board member of Share Our Strength, an international hunger relief organization. In addition, he serves as a life board member of The North Texas Food Bank and is on The National Culinary Advisor's Board of The Art Institutes. In 1988, he founded Dallas' Taste of the Nation event, which has raised over $1,500,000 for local ministries and food pantries. He was co-founder of The Hunger Link, Dallas' perishable food program which links restaurants and hotels with shelters and other feeding programs.

Pyles is a cuisine consultant to American Airlines and has created concepts such as the nationally-acclaimed Dragonfly restaurant at Hotel ZaZa and Ama Lur at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.