Slicing through the Butcher’s Ball food festival.
THE BUTCHER’S BALL BRINGS RANCHERS, FARMERS AND CULINARY EXPERTS TOGETHER.
The Butcher’s Ball is only six hours long, not nearly enough time to take in all the ranching/ farming/butchering/cooking/ barbecuing pleasures the meatproud festival packs into one day.
This year’s fourth annual Butcher’s Ball, Sunday at Rockin’ Star Ranch in Brenham, is a showcase for Texas ranchers dedicated to sustainable practices and the chefs and pitmasters who use those animal products. More than 50 chefs, butchers, farmers, ranchers, culinary educators and bartenders are bringing their talents to the event that promises plenty of food as well as craft cocktails and beer.
Houston chefs cooking at the event include Chris Davies of Uchi, Adam Dorris of Coterie, Erin Smith and Patrick Feges of Feges BBQ, Felix Florez of Black Hill Meats, Ryan Hildebrand of FM Kitchen & Bar, Jennifer Hoffman of Leeland House, Graham Laborde of Killen’s Steakhouse, Dominick Lee of Poitin, Ara Malekian of Harlem Road Texas BBQ, Bobby Matos of State of Grace, Gabe Medina of Click Virtual Food Hall, E.J. Miller of International Smoke, Joseph Quellar of JQ’s Tex-Mex BBQ, Jessica DeSham Timmons of Cherry Block Craft Butcher & Kitchen, Max Torres of Cake & Bacon, Willow Villarreal of Willow’s Texas BBQ, Jeff Weinstock of Cake & Bacon, Johnny Wesley of HTX Nitro Creamery and Jane Wild of The Dunlavy.
Twenty-two other chefs from across Texas will compete in the Golden Cleaver Competition for the best food at the festival. Competing Houston chefs include Dawn Burrell of Kulture, Evelyn Garcia of Decatur Bar, Tony Luhrman of El Topo (last year’s Cleaver champ), Johnny Rhodes of Indigo and Austin Simmons of Tris, who will square off against the likes of Bramwell Trip of Loro in Austin, David Uygur of Macellaio in Dallas, Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley of Foreign & Domestic in Austin, Jeff Balfour of Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery in San Antonio, and Justin Manning of C&J Barbecue in College Station.
Cocktails will be curated by Houston bartending professionals Linda Salinas, Cat Nguyen and Sarah Troxell.
There will be live music; butchering demonstrations; panel discussions on Texas ranching and barbecue; a kids cooking class hosted by Houston chef Monica Pope, beer from 8th Wonder Brewery; Texas wine selections from Duchman Family Winery, Llano Estacado and Los Pinos Ranch; an Urban Harvest farmers market; and desserts from Shawn Gawle of Rosie Cannonball, Hani Lae of Poitin and Johnny Wesley of HTX Nitro Creamery.