Texas Foodways

The state of Texas is big in size, legend, and diversity. Geography and cultural background usually determine what's on a Texan's plate and what suits a Texan's palate. Bountiful peaches, rice, oysters, pecans, nopalitos (cactus), and citrus fruits "flavor" the local culture and cuisine where they are harvested. Just as important are the legacy of the state's cattle and ranching industries and Texas's intertwined history with Mexico. They influence Texas's signature dishes— chili, chicken-fried steak, barbecue, and cheese enchiladas, which are eaten proudly by Texans of all stripes whether at home or in restaurants. Many great home cooks start restaurants that become centers of cultural life for their communities. They give community members, who may be too busy to cook or never learned to cook, a place to eat foods with which they most identify.

Lunch in Texas might include smoked sausage and German potato salad in Fredericksburg (Central Texas), a steaming bowl of pho in Houston's Vietnamese community (Southeast Texas), a pot of boiled crawfish in Orange (Southeast Texas, on the border of Louisiana), a gargantuan hamburger in Fort Worth (North Texas), fresh asadero cheese wrapped in a warm tortilla in El Paso (far West Texas), or grilled shrimp and fried oysters in Rockport (on the Gulf Coast).

Coming to the Festival:
Hoover Alexander, Austin, Texas
Hoover Alexander is a fifth-generation African American Texan. He grew up loving his mother Dorothy's Southern home cooking and spent summers on the Utley farm where she was raised. Influenced by the multicultural community in Austin, he honed his cooking skills in the legendary Night Hawk Restaurant in Austin, where he opened his own restaurant in 1998.

Bill Avila, El Paso, Texas
Bill Avila is a fourth-generation El Pasoan who grew up in his family's Mexican restaurant, Leo's. He worked his way up from dishwasher to cook to owner and opened his own restaurant, Avila's, in 1970. The menu's recipes came straight from family—father, great aunts, and grandmothers. The restaurant closed only last year.

Gene Marie Bohuslav and Rene Matula, Komensky, Texas
Texas Czechs Gene Marie and her daughter Rene were born and raised in the tiny community of Komensky in Lavaca County. Gene Marie still lives on the land she grew up on and farmed with her husband. Czech was her first language, and she's spent a lifetime making traditional Texas Czech dishes for her family and community.

Tom Nall, Burnet, Texas
Born and raised on his family's ranch, Tom Nall has worked as a cowboy and wagon boss at ranches in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. He had already participated in chili cook-offs around the state when he met and eventually went to work for the Fowler family, the well-known chili spice company owners. Tom's unofficial title is "chili ambassador."

Lyly Nguyen, Corpus Christi, Texas
Lyly immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in the late 1970s and lived in several states before settling in Rockport, Texas, where her father worked in the shrimping industry. Along the Gulf Coast, Lyly and six family members own Vietnamese restaurants where they serve dishes influenced by their family's traditional cooking.

Betty and Steve Orsak, Katy, Texas
Taught by family members in South Central Texas, husband and wife Steve and Betty Orsak have canned, pickled, and preserved foods together since the early 1970s. Their Czech heritage influences their choice of recipes and produce. Steve was a foodways participant at the 1996 Festival.

Tom Perini, Buffalo Gap, Texas
Tom Perini grew up and worked on his family's cattle ranch in Buffalo Gap in West Texas. Later in life, when his father's death brought him back to the ranch he loved, he combined his two passions—ranch life and cooking. In 1983, Tom opened the Perini Ranch Steakhouse on his property.

Wendy Power, San Antonio, Texas
Growing up in a Polish Texan family in a majority Mexican American Texas city, Wendy Power ate and cooked sausage. Her grandfather started the Kiolbassa Provision Company, which makes Polish-style sausage and Mexican chorizo. Wendy, well versed in recipes that draw on both traditions, now works for the sausage company her family still owns.