Helen Greek Food & Wine Editor’s Pick
Helen is fascinated by the shared passions of Greek and Texan cuisine—and there are many, it turns out, including a love for such ingredients as quail and okra. Young chef William Wright, whose work at Sicily’s famous La Madia gave him an appreciation for both deeply authentic and reimagined regional cuisine, takes chances in exploring the two cuisines, creating staggeringly beautiful dishes. There’s originality in everything he does—the grilled octopus, Gulf-caught by respected Greek fisherman Frixos Chrisinis, is served with a charred thyme oil alongside classic gigante beans in tomato sauce—but Wright respects tradition too. His horiatiki properly eschews lettuce in favor of the best tomatoes and olives he can find—the former from Texas, the latter from Greece.