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After more than 25 years in Dallas’ restaurant
circuit, Stephan Pyles is known as the founding father
of Southwestern Cuisine and creator of New Texas Cuisine
receiving numerous awards and much acclaim in his native
Texas and across the nation. A fifth-generation Texan,
Pyles was the first from his state to be inducted into
The James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of
Food and Beverage in America, and Bon Appetit has credited
him with “almost single-handedly changing the cooking
scene in Texas.” The New York Times has called
Pyles “an absolute genius in the kitchen”
while Texas Monthly Magazine named Pyles one of the
“20 most impressive, intriguing and influential
Texans for 1998.”
As a consulting concept chef for Gaylord Opryland Texas,
Chef Pyles will be responsible for developing the culinary
direction of the highly anticipated Latin restaurant
which will be located under a five-acre glass bubble
in the main atrium of the hotel. Pyles plans to feature
new interpretations of dishes of international acclaim
from Latin cultures around the world, including Tapas,
“the little dishes of Spain,” and Ceviches
from Mexico and South America. Pyles will also select
the executive chef who will collaborate with him on
new dishes and will execute the menus.
Pyles has proven himself a success time and time again
in his career in which he has created 12 restaurants,
written four books and starred in his own Emmy Award-winning
PBS television series New Tastes from Texas. In 1994,
Pyles opened Star Canyon, which made the lists of “best
new restaurants” in Esquire, Bon Appetit, and Town
and Country. It was named one of the top five new restaurants
in America by the James Beard Foundation, and in March
1998 Playboy, polling 100 top food critics, named it
one of America’s top 25 restaurants. The September
1998 issue of Food and Wine listed Star Canyon as the
“quintessential Dallas restaurant.” In 1997,
Pyles opened AquaKnox, a global seafood restaurant that
was named best new restaurant by Food and Wine. Pyles
is currently working on a new restaurant slated to open
in Dallas in spring 2003.
While chef and owner of Routh Street Cafe and Baby
Routh (1983-93) and Goodfellow’s and Tejas in Minneapolis
(1987-93), Pyles was the recipient of numerous awards,
including the AAA Five Diamond Award; Nation’s
Restaurant News’ Fine Dining Hall of Fame Award;
Restaurants and Institutions’ Ivy Award and the
American Academy of Achievement Award. He was the inaugural
recipient of The James Beard Foundation’s award
for Best Chef in America-Southwest in 1991 and has been
given the Outstanding Restaurateur of the Year award
by both the Minnesota Restaurant and Texas Restaurant
associations. In 1998, he received the Humanitarian
of the Year Award from Share Our Strength, America’s
largest hunger-relief organization.
He has cooked for dignitaries and celebrities from
HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Mikhail Gorbachev to Mick
Jagger and Sharon Stone. He has appeared around the
world as guest celebrity chef and was one of five chefs
worldwide invited to prepare dinner for Jimmy Carter’s
70th birthday. Pyles is currently cuisine consultant
for American Airlines, Texas Land and Cattle Steak House,
and a host of other clients.
Pyles’ first cookbook, The New Texas Cuisine,
was named by Bon Appetit as one of the top 10 chef’s
cookbooks of the decade (1990s) and is now in its ninth
printing. Pyles has also authored Tamales with McMillan
and New Tastes from Texas, which is the companion piece
to his Emmy-award winning nationally syndicated PBS
television series by the same name. He also is host
of a weekly cooking segment on the Texas ABC affiliate,
which airs throughout the state. In addition, he has
appeared frequently on such national programs as “Good
Morning America” and “The Today Show.”
He has recently released his fourth book, Southwestern
Vegetarian, published by Clarkson-Potter, a division
of Random House.
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