The most exciting summer food events in Dallas are the guest chef dinner series

Sometimes a simple idea can have so many benefits that it starts to sound profound. The most exciting food events on the Dallas calendar for the rest of this year are a great example of such a simple yet clever idea.

Let’s start with the problems these events help solve. Summer is a slow time for Dallas restaurants, as diners spend as little time outside their air-conditioned homes as possible (and as much time as possible on vacation somewhere else). Dallas still lacks the kind of national networking and exposure that leads to big prizes. And local chefs are concerned about how to introduce Dallas diners to new cultures, ideas and styles.

Triple solution: Bring in guest chefs from other cities, states and even continents for can’t-miss dinners.

Two guest chef dinner series launching this summer promise some of the most exciting meals of the year. Quarter Acre, the quietly excellent bistro on Greenville Avenue, will host a ‘season’ of guests for dinners to benefit a charity close to the chef’s heart, and ceramicist Marcello Andres welcomes chefs and diners to his studio for the Kiln to Table series.

Here’s what you need to know about the events, their hosts and our guests.

From oven to table: dinner in the ceramics studio

Marcello Andres’ ceramics studio has always been closely linked to the food industry. He makes plates, bowls, kopitas and other food service items for many of your favorite restaurants.

The first Kiln to Table dinner took place in May, with local chef Justin Box, who has found a fascinating niche cuisine for punk musicians. Next up, in July: two nights of cultural immersion in the food, drink and music of Bolivia.

The Bolivian dinners are a collaboration between local chef Gigi Zimmermann – formerly of Joyce and Gigi’s – and Marsia Taha, probably the most famous and acclaimed chef in Bolivia. Taha, who has been praised on global lists of best restaurants, flies in with a suitcase full of rare ingredients.

“I have been following Marsia’s work for a long time because she is a compatriot and has done so much and worked very hard to where she is,” says Zimmermann. “I wanted to do a real Bolivian (dinner), and I wanted to join forces with someone. It just so happened that she was in the same mindset. She travels the world for the love of food and shares everything she does at Gustu in La Paz. We had pretty much the same mission.”

Traditional Bolivian food is rare in the United States. Creative, untraditional dishes like Taha serves are even rarer. And Zimmermann promises we’ll get a mix of both. The two chefs come from different parts of the country. Taha works in La Paz, three kilometers above sea level, and Zimmermann grew up in the Amazon basin. They will blend these two heritages at dinner, combining ingredients and regional styles in a way that wouldn’t traditionally happen in Bolivia. Taha and Zimmermann also each serve a traditional soup from their hometown.

“By uniting all those ingredients that were separated by a lot of politics, we actually want to put them back together,” Zimmermann explains. She adds that some of these ingredients are simply not available in the United States. She’s growing some traditional herbs in her garden in Dallas, and Taha plans to bring dried items. “I want to open people’s curiosity. Many of these courses have a story.”

It will also be an immersive experience. There will be small samples of Bolivian wines and liquors and guest musicians. One is a member of the Dallas Symphony and the other flies from Bolivia.

Andres’ communal dining table is in a small side room off the main space where his team shapes and hand-finishes ceramics. When I ask him why he uses this location to host special occasion dinners, the answer is found all around us in his work: plates, bowls, goblets and other pieces that express his love of food and the experience of sharing call for a meal. with others.

“Collaborating with chefs is a big part of what we do,” says Andres. “Anytime I can collaborate with a restaurateur on how to present their menu is exciting, and this is great in a different way. Sometimes I deliver the plates and I don’t see the food made and served unless I go there.

The Dallas chefs have long been enthusiastic about Andres’ craft, and the mutual respect creates a feedback loop of creativity as the plate maker and chef encourage each other to pursue new ideas. During my visit to the studio, the shelves of plates are labeled by the chef or restaurant they are delivered to: Peja Krstic, RJ Yoakum, Misti Norris, Beverley’s and an out-of-town resident: Eleven Madison Park. These chefs will have the first opportunity to collaborate with Kiln to Table.

“To the best of our ability, I want to create specific plates for these dinners,” says Andres, adding that Zimmermann had a choice of plates that most closely reflect Bolivian traditions. He is inspired by the opportunity to appeal to as many senses as possible. “What are the colors of your food? What are the colors of the plates?”

Drifter Dinner Series: Charity nights at Quarter Acre

This summer and fall, Quarter Acre’s Drifter Dinner Series will bring flavors from across the United States to Greenville Avenue. Chef-owner Toby Archibald treats it like a season: Guests can book “season passes” for all four meals or individual seating, and if the series is a hit, there will be a “season two” next year.

For Archibald and his team, the excitement comes from connecting Dallasites and Dallas restaurants with colleagues across the country, including showing the chefs how other chefs approach their work.

“I’m really excited about it because it’s cool, I don’t have to eat tonight,” Archibald says. ‘Whose food are we doing? It’s like putting on a mask for the night.”

The guests make for an impressive lineup: Diego Galicia of famed San Antonio restaurant Mixtli, San Diego “borderless” adventurer Keith Lord, Minneapolis restaurateur Gavin Kaysen, and the toast of Houston, Aaron Bludorn. Galicia will collaborate on one of his signature, deeply researched Mexican tasting menus in August, and Bludorn – Archibald’s boss when both worked for legendary chef Daniel Boulud – will wrap up the series just before Thanksgiving.

There’s another important element to the Quarter Acre series: the charity’s beneficiary. Dinner tickets cost $495 per seat, with a portion donated to the Tiniest Texans, a support program in Baylor Scott & White’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Archibald’s daughter was born nine weeks premature at Baylor University Medical Center and spent seven weeks in the NICU.

“She weighed three and a half pounds,” he says. “She wasn’t the smallest (they cooperate).” Seven years later, he still chokes up when he talks about it, apologizing mid-sentence. “Every time,” he says, before expressing his gratitude to the littlest Texans. “They take things as big as your phone and turn them into regular people with so much expertise. The support you got: it was amazing. The help they give you. Last Christmas we went back and gave all the staff cookies. We took Francesca with us and we were like, ‘Here she is! She’s fat and healthy! Thank you!'”

In addition to all the culinary attractions it offers, Quarter Acre’s new dinner series is also another way to express that gratitude.

Author

Brian Reinhart

view profile

Brian Reinhart became D Magazine’s food critic in 2022 after six years of writing about restaurants for the Dallas Observer and the Dallas Morning News.