Last week I announced that Jeff Harris from Bolsa and Bolsa Mercado would be the guest chef at a dinner at Rockwall’s Restaurant Ava. Ava has long been a favorite restaurant, making farm to table fare way before it was faddish thing to do. For Harris this philosophy seems to be an inherent way to cook as well.
I met Harris several years ago when he was the Chef de Cuisine at Craft. Harris is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, but was raised in East Texas where his family raises cattle. Harris cut his teeth as a chef using Texas ingredients during his externship at Austin’s Hudson’s on the Bend where they specialize in game. Not long after that he was offered a position back in New York at Tom Colicchio’s Craft as garde manger. Continue reading