David Cordúa explores city’s culinary riches
David Cordúa is hardly unfamiliar with the Houston food scene. Not only did he grow up in the city, he was raised in a creative culinary environment as the son of Michael Cordúa, the force behind the game-changing Churrascos and Américas restaurants.
Yet, as the younger Cordúa readily admits, he still has much to learn about the foods and foodways of the city he calls home. And he puts himself in the position of the everyman food tourist in “The Houston Cookbook,” a half-hour TV show produced by Houston Public Media airing Sunday night. As host, Cordúa makes a comfortable, easygoing navigator as he visits just a few pockets of immigrant cultures that make Houston the most diverse city in America.
The 36-year-old chef said he rejects the label of “melting pot” that is often used to describe our culinary stew. That term, he said, suggests a watering-down of the very cultures it seeks to celebrate.
“We’re interwoven, but every culture maintains its own identity,” Cordúa said. “They don’t lose their identity.”
He proves that by the people he meets — and cooks with — on “The Houston Cookbook.” He shops in Houston’s Mahatma Gandhi District with chef Kiran Verma of Kiran’s and then works in her kitchen to prepare chicken tikka masala. He watches as Ana Beaven, owner of Mexican restaurant Cuchara, prepares mole verde from a family recipe at her apartment. Kim Oanh Vu and her son Tho Lam, who run Pho One in west Houston, show Cordúa how to make the broth for Houston’s beloved Vietnamese noodle soup. He learns how to make egusi soup, eaten with fufu, a starchy staple made with cassava flour, from two Nigerian cooks. And Quy Hoang of Blood Bros. BBQ shows Cordúa his smoked beef belly with gochujang paste, a merger of Texan barbecue with Vietnamese and Korean cultures.
That diversity is important to showcase and document, said Tomeka Weatherspoon, arts and culture producer for Houston Public Media.
“I’m a newcomer to Houston. I’ve been here about three years now, but the diversity of the city still fascinates me — as a human and as a creative producer,” said Weatherspoon, who conceived of the show and produced it. “I had been brainstorming ways to showcase how people come together to celebrate the rich cultures embedded into the fabric of the city. That’s when it hit me: food.”
“The Houston Cookbook” comes as Houston continues to be recognized as one of America’s great food cities. That arc of discovery, which began about 10 years ago, remains strong thanks not just to Houston’s obvious diversity but to the authentic cooking styles and innovations by the city’s chefs and cooks.
Cordúa credits Chris Shepherd — the James Beard Award-winning chef who now heads One Fifth Mediterranean, Georgia James and UB Preserv — with doing much to advance Houston in the nation’s foodie spotlight. “Chris gave us the language of having a Houstonese cuisine,” he said. “He gave us a vocabulary to talk about Houston as its own thing.”
Houston remains a place of discovery, Cordúa said. “The entire country is looking at Houston and saying, ‘What’s going on there?’ ”
Those who follow the ins and outs of the local restaurant industry might be asking the same thing about the Cordúas. In September, after many years as the figureheads of Houston’s Cordúa Restaurants, founder Michael and culinary director David both found themselves fully separated from the restaurant group they helped build. Cordúa Restaurants is now controlled by Deshon Investments, which previously had a 50 percent stake in the company.
Since then father and son established David + Michael Cordúa Events, a catering company. David also continues to do pop-ups under the Yum DMC handle. And the Cordúas are planning a new restaurant they hope to open next year.
“The separation was a long time coming. It was necessary,” David said. “We’re still here and open for business. The best is yet to come.”
The same could probably said for the city’s food scene as a whole. And Cordúa said he’ll be there to greet it. Although “The Houston Cookbook” is, for now, a one-off, Cordúa said he could easily see new chapters.
“Houston is not an obvious city. It takes a good two years to figure out,” he said. “Take a weekend and discover places you may have never been to before. Check out Montrose, Long Point, the East End or Chinatown.”
Just like he did for “The Houston Cookbook.”