Talking Tex Mex with Chef Dean Fearing

Tasty Tex-Mex restaurants are a peso a dozen in Dallas. On one side of the coin, you’ll find heaping portions-a-plenty of predictable plates that rarely disappoint, while on the other, you must scour many a common cocina to uncover a truly memorable meal.

Amidst the loaded nachos and sizzling fajitas is Fearing’s, a gem of a restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood led by celebrity chef Dean Fearing, recipient of the prestigious James Beard Foundation Restaurant Award for Best Chef in the Southwest and widely considered the “Father of Southwestern Cuisine.”

As an innkeeper’s son who spent afterschool time in the kitchen and grew up to host a syndicated cooking show on Fox called “Dean’s Cuisine” and a Food Network show “Entertaining at Home”, Fearing is an expert at feeding the masses. He says the key to successful entertaining is merely a matter of practice and mathematics. “Rule number one, don’t be intimidated about cooking for a crowd,” he says. “If you can cook for four you can cook for a crowd using the rules of multiplication, just multiply what you’d do for a table of four by three when you’re entertaining a dozen people. There’s a method to the madness and the only way to do it is with trial and error to build your confidence.”

A leisurely lunch at Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas is best enjoyed in Dean’s Kitchen, one of the restaurant’s eight dining spaces. Bathed in light thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows, the vaulted, spacious salon has plush banquette seating for 66 people and an open kitchen where you’ll find Fearing himself at the helm – that is, when he’s not taking a pass by each table to greet his guests like old friends. Compliment him on his chef’s whites, embroidered with colorful cowboy boots, and you may get a sly grin as he lifts a leg of his pressed denim pants to reveal a peek at an equally embellished Lucchese leather boot.

Next, get a taste of what Fearing is dishing up…

If you stop in, try Fearing’s take on refined Mexican street foods: warm carnitas on corn tortillas with deep-fried spears of avocado and creamy poblano queso fresco for dipping and lobster nachos that nix ho-hum sour cream in favor of cilantro crème fraiche and roasted tomato salsa. Tortilla soup poured tableside is made with a toasted tortilla, julienned radish, finely diced raw cabbage, and roasted chili peppers that give the soup a subtle bite and a lingering smoky aftertaste. Latin libations include Dos Equis Mexican beer, an agave-sweetened signature margarita made with Cazadores blanco tequila, and passion fruit sangria, just to name a few.

With two boys ages 14 and 16, Fearing says he indulges in his fair share of neighborhood pizza parlors and Loco Nachos at Mi Cocina. He says “little Mexico” on Maple Avenue is a melting pot of good flavors. As for other favorite Dallas restaurants, he suggests Joyce & Gigi’s Kitchen for traditional Colombian eats, a LaVentana taqueira called MesoMaya, and family-owned Mia’s for Tex-Mex.

If you can’t make it to Dallas to experience Fearing’s for yourself, the chef offered his tortilla soup recipe so you can prepare it in your kitchen. Whip it up for four or 400, just get out that calculator and start chopping. 

Tortilla Soup 

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 corn tortillas, cut into long strips
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 cups fresh onion puree
• 4 cups fresh tomato puree
• 5 dried ancho chilies, fire roasted and seeded 
• 2 jalapenos, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped epazote
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

Get the full recipe.