Big Southern flavor is in full force in this salad of Frobergs Farm watermelon and pickled watermelon rind. Heirloom cherry tomatoes, Pure Luck Farm feta and crispy chips of country ham sit in a puddle of pepper jelly vinaigrette that’s dotted with basil oil.
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Big Southern flavor is in full force in this salad of Frobergs Farm watermelon and pickled watermelon rind. Heirloom cherry tomatoes, Pure Luck Farm feta and crispy chips of country ham sit in a puddle of pepper jelly vinaigrette that’s dotted with basil oil.
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You’re supposed to eat every bit of these crispy Matagorda Bay shrimp spiders. They’re served with a plump dumpling filled with tasso-flavored grits in a tangy Meyer lemon barbecue sauce.
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You’re supposed to eat every bit of these crispy Matagorda Bay shrimp spiders. They’re served with a plump dumpling filled with tasso-flavored grits in a tangy Meyer lemon barbecue sauce.
Quackerjacks, Cervantez’s answer to candy corn made from duck cracklings and pecans, dot the plate of this crêpe. It’s filled with pulled, roasted duck and topped with a sunny-side-up duck egg. The glaze on the plate is made from Rainier cherries.
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Quackerjacks, Cervantez’s answer to candy corn made from duck cracklings and pecans, dot the plate of this crêpe. It’s filled with pulled, roasted duck and topped with a sunny-side-up duck egg. The glaze on the plate is made from Rainier cherries.
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No dish we tried suggests Cervantez’s time at Killen’s quite like this sugar cane smoked beef rib. It’s crowned with a chutney made from Trappey’s Peppers, sweetened with a mayhaw jelly barbecue sauce. Louisiana-style creamed corn is punctuated by ears of baby corn.
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No dish we tried suggests Cervantez’s time at Killen’s quite like this sugar cane smoked beef rib. It’s crowned with a chutney made from Trappey’s Peppers, sweetened with a mayhaw jelly barbecue sauce. Louisiana-style creamed corn is punctuated by ears of baby corn.
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Dessert also uses profoundly traditional ingredients in uncommon ways. This cobbler of Moorhead’s Blueberry Farm berries is topped with sorghum streusel and tangy goats’ milk ice cream so light that it suggests sorbet.
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Dessert also uses profoundly traditional ingredients in uncommon ways. This cobbler of Moorhead’s Blueberry Farm berries is topped with sorghum streusel and tangy goats’ milk ice cream so light that it suggests sorbet.
Joe Cervantez still lives with his wife and two young children in his hometown of Pearland. Until recently, that made sense. He was an executive chef at Killen’s Steakhouse since 2014.
But these days, he says he’s spending a lot of time catching up on what local radio has to offer as he commutes from the ‘burbs to Brennan’s of Houston in Midtown where he began as executive chef in May. It was a homecoming for the chef; his original tenure at Brennan’s began in 2010, when he took on the role of sous-chef under Danny Trace, whom he’s now replaced.
General manager Carl Walker, a onetime chef at Brennan’s himself, says that the goal in bringing in a young gun such as Cervantez was revitalizing the menu while maintaining Southern flavors and ingredients as the grounding factor. And don’t worry: turtle soup, Redfish Pontchartain and Bananas Foster are secure in their places on the menu alongside Cervantez’s more forward-thinking creations.
Alice joined Houstonia in November 2015 and has been relishing exploring the city’s vibrant food scene ever since.
She began her journalism career at age 13 with a cult film criticism ’zine. As an adult, stints with WWE Magazine and EatingWell led to her job as senior food writer at Vermont’s alternative newsweekly, Seven Days, in 2008. In that capacity, she became one of the state’s most well-known TV and radio personalities. Her first book, Vermont: An Explorer’s Guide, was published in 2015. Alice has won an AltWeekly Award for Best Food Writing, two Daysies for Best Print/Online Journalist, and two "Top Social Foodie" awards from Burlington Social Media Day.
