Wine and Food Summit

Wine, cuisine with southwestern flair star at 11^th annual summit

Foodies and wine aficionados from near and far will be gathering in and around Abilene this April to experience West Texas hospitality and sample the best of Southwest cuisine and expertly-paired wines for the 11th annual Buffalo Gap Wine & Food Summit.

This year’s featured chefs – Stephan Pyles, Dean Fearing and Robert Del Grande – will prepare a Southwest-themed dinner Friday night, and Texas Monthly writer Patricia Sharpe will moderate “A Conversation with the Classics,” a panel discussion with the three chefs on Saturday.

Pyles, owner of Stephan Pyles, Stampede 66 and Samar restaurants in Dallas, is a James Beard “Best Chef” Award recipient, an Esquire Magazine “Chef of the Year” and described by The New York Times as “an absolute genius in the kitchen.” A native of nearby Big Spring, he is known as a pioneer of New American cooking and a founding father of Southwestern cuisine as well as an expert on international cuisines.

Fearing owns Fearing’s Restaurant in Dallas but spent 20-plus years at The Mansion on Turtle Creek before opening Fearing’s Restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas in 2007. He has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Food and Wine, Bon Appétit, Garden & Gun, The Food Network, Texas Monthly, Guitar Aficionado, Modern Luxury, and more. The exuberant, every-friendly Fearing was recipient of the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Award for “Best Chef in the Southwest,” “Restaurant of the Year” and “Table of the Year” by Esquire Magazine and the “Pioneer of American Cuisine” by the Culinary Institute of America. Fearing is also author of “The Texas Food Bible.”

Del Grande served as executive chef and partner of Houston’s nationally acclaimed Café Annie, widely regarded as the city’s premier fine dining establishment and opened his signature restaurant, RDG + Annie Bar in 2009. Del Grande is devoted to regional cooking in Texas and the importance of the resonant pairing of wine and food. He has been featured in Bon Appétit, Conde Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, Gourmet, The New York Times, Southern Living, W and Wine Spectator. Culinary awards and honors include “Chef of the Year,” 1998 Culinary Award, “America’s Best Chef, Southwest,” by the James Beard Foundation, and “Honor Roll of American Chefs” by Food & Wine.

The Buffalo Gap Wine and Food Summit, Inc., was founded by Tom Perini of Perini Ranch Steakhouse, Richard Becker of Becker Vineyards in Stonewall, Texas, and the late Fess Parker of Fess Parker Winery and Vineyards in Los Olivos, Calif. The mission of the organization is to cultivate the appreciation of fine wine and food through education and industry discussion. A portion of the proceeds benefit a graduate fellowship in the Department of Viticulture & Enology at Texas Tech University.