Chefs For Farmers 2026: Eight Chefs to Find at Old City Park This Weekend

Chefs For Farmers started in 2010 as one farm dinner for about a hundred people. This week it takes over Dallas for the 16th time, and the idea hasn’t changed much. Iris Midler founded it, and every chef still gets a stipend from the festival to buy from local farms, then cooks something worth the trip.

This is CraveDFW’s last look before the gates open. If you caught our early bird preview last month, here’s what has firmed up since, and eight chefs to find once you’re inside.

The week opens Wednesday, Nov. 4, with something the festival has never done before. Chefs For Farmers partnered with the James Beard Foundation on a Friends of James Beard Benefit Dinner at Meridian, hosted by chef Eduardo Osorio. The lineup includes Misti Norris of Far Out, Reilly Brown of Frenchie, RJ Yoakum of Sushi Kozy, Jennie Kelley and Brandon Moore of Fond, and Brenda Perez. A portion of the proceeds goes to the foundation.

Thursday night moves to Far Out for Under the Texas Sky, a dinner for American Airlines AAdvantage Mastercard cardmembers. Norris shares the kitchen with Houston’s Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu of JŪN, this year’s James Beard Award winners for Best Chef: Texas, and Ian Lanphear of Isidore in San Antonio. Both dinners are sold out, so if you’re holding a ticket, you got lucky.

The Main Event runs Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7 and 8, at Old City Park. That’s the big tasting, with unlimited food and drink from Texas chefs, winemakers, distillers and producers, plus live music. VIP entry starts at 2 p.m. and general admission at 3 p.m., and both days wrap at 6. New this year are the Texas Smoke Show, the Palm Beaches Garden, and a lounge called Boots, Barrels and BMW. The lineup shifts between days, so check which chefs cook when before you pick your day.

Here are the eight we’d go looking for (out of hundreds).

Dominique Crenn, Café Dior (Saturday)

The biggest name on the grounds this weekend. Crenn became the first woman chef in the United States to earn three Michelin stars, for Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, and in February 2025 she partnered with Dior on the Café Dior in Highland Park Village. She grew up in France and spent her summers in Brittany, and her cooking has always leaned toward the sea and what local farmers bring her. Seeing what she does with a Texas farm stipend is reason enough to come Saturday. Follow her on Instagram.

Aubrey Murphy, Brute (Saturday)

Murphy’s own restaurant, Brute, opens on Lower Greenville later this month, which makes Saturday something of a preview. He’s Texas born and raised, and he picked up his love for supporting small farms in rural North Texas. This is a chance to taste where his head is right before the doors open on Greenville.

Jonathon Erdeljac, Jonathon’s Diner and Jonathon’s Forestwood (Saturday)

The Gravy King himself. Erdeljac runs both restaurants with his wife, Christine, and his chicken and waffles, chicken fried steak, patty melt and the Nooner burger have built a following all over town. His beer cheese soup even made it into Food & Wine. If anyone at Old City Park is going to turn farm-fresh produce into comfort food, it’s him. CraveDFW just put his biscuits on our list of the best biscuits and gravy in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Deborah Williamson, James Provisions (Saturday)

Williamson spent more than 20 years in New York, the last 15 owning and running her Brooklyn restaurant, James. She came home to Texas in 2022 and opened James Provisions in Hurst the next year, cooking farm-driven food without seed oils. The Texas Restaurant Association gave her its Rising Star Award in 2025. Her booth is the one to find for anyone who cares where the ingredients came from.

Justin Fourton, Pecan Lodge (Saturday)

Pecan Lodge started as a small stand at the Dallas Farmers Market, so a festival built around farmers is something close to home for Fourton. The restaurant helped kick off the modern craft barbecue boom in Texas, and these days he also hosts the Smoke(less) podcast, where he talks with chefs, pitmasters and artists about craft and obsession. With the new Texas Smoke Show on the grounds this year, the barbecue end of the park should be busy. Find Pecan Lodge on Instagram.

Jill Bates, Sugar & Sage (Sunday)

Bates has more than 20 years in Dallas kitchens, including years alongside Dean Fearing at Fearing’s and at The Mansion on Turtle Creek, plus a run leading the pastry program at Café Momentum. Now she’s executive pastry chef at Sugar & Sage on Lovers Lane, where her Kouign-Amann and Brioche Feuilletée are the ones to know. Sunday visitors who save room for dessert will be glad they did.

Jennie Kelley and Brandon Moore, Fond (Sunday)

Kelley and Moore run Fond, the small, slightly hard-to-find bistro downtown known for its sandwiches at lunch and its Detroit-style pizza. They also host Fond AD, a monthly themed supper club that nods to Kelley’s old Frank Underground dinners. Cooking at the James Beard dinner Wednesday and the Main Event Sunday makes this a big week for the pair.

Peja Krstic, Mot Hai Ba

Krstic was born in Belgrade in 1983 and came up through Dallas kitchens, including a stint as corporate chef overseeing Sfuzzi and Villa O, before taking over Mot Hai Ba in 2015. More than a decade later he’s still at the small Lakewood restaurant on Lewis Street, cooking seasonal Texas ingredients with Vietnamese inspiration and French technique. His Bishop Arts bistro, Pillar, closed last month, so this weekend is a good chance to see what he’s cooking now. He’s no stranger to this festival either, having cooked Chefs For Farmers dinners in 2021 and again last year.

A few more names worth a stop if you have the appetite. Bruno Davaillon of Georgie and Jon Bonnell of Bonnell’s are cooking Sunday, Eric Spigner of the new Barro y Fuego is in Saturday, and associates from Hugs Cafe, where adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities train for careers in hospitality, will be serving Saturday too.

The Main Event is 21 and over, and you’ll need a valid photo ID at the gate. Old City Park is at 1515 S. Harwood St., Dallas. Tickets and the full chef lineup are on the Chefs For Farmers website. VIP tickets were sold out for both days as of this writing, with general admission still available. Wear comfortable shoes and pace yourself.