CityArts Festival Hosts Food Trucks and Chefs

by Steven Doyle

This weekend we stumbled upon the CityArt’s Festival at Fair Park. It was Saturday afternoon and my little band of gypsies had just dined on Jimmy’s Food Store sandwiches and spent some time with Tom Spicer sipping Prosecco on his fairly new patio deck behind Spiceman’s FM 1410 shop. We were so close to Fair Park it would have been a miscarriage of justice not to stop in and see what was cooking at the festival.

After scanning the Fairgrounds a bit we found a few food trucks that provided shade and sustenance for some of the festival goers. Some of the food truck owners were excited about the prospects of Dallas loosening their laws and allowing more access to these beautiful mobile kitchens.

This Holmes Smokehouse truck originates from Houston and has plans to rest a truck permanently in Dallas, selling their beautiful barbecue and sausage on a stick.

This Good Luck Truck sells assorted sliders and sandwiches along with large variety of tacos.

Seeking shelter from the rising humidity (its never the heat) we made our way into the same building where a massive car show was being held.  Towards the back of the building CityArt’s had created a kitchen stadium and hosted a large band of chefs. We had just missed Jim Severson, the CIA grad and chef/owner of Sevy’s, as he created a beautiful shrimp dish. The chef was good enough to leave behind a few plates for stragglers to sample, and we fit the bill.

Fortunately there were a few more chefs in the wings for us to watch. Next up was Blythe Beck of Central 214, followed up by Richard Chamberlain of Chamberlain’s Steak & Chop House in Addison. Always a pleasure to see this duo in action.

Beck had prepared some beautiful ribs that was to be served with a side of mango salsa. The salsa that she had prepared for the hungry crowd didn’t make the provisions truck, so she improvised a quick version that proved fantastic.

This is the Chamberlain’s dish made of Tandori Beef Skewers with Pistachio Couscous. The beef was ever-so-tender, but the cous cous was the star of the plate. His recipe for the afternoon was taken from his new book that he co-authored called the Healthy Beef Cook Book, which I will be looking for online later today.

Interesting enough, we saw Chamberlain’s wife Lisa at the event.  She was coordinating the cooking demos and gathering the chefs.  She has a background in event planning and did a sweet job.

Next chef was David McMillan of Screen Door and he was to make his famous Shrimp and Grits but we were out of time and needed to hit the next leg of our journey that day.