Photos by Mai Pham

Compressed melon and bay scallop appetizer

This week, we chatted with Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio, the executive chef and partner at Hawthorn in Upper Kirby, a restaurant that is literally a hidden gem because its physical location is hidden behind the Cafe Express on Kirby at West Main.

The restaurant itself is intimate and beautifully appointed, with rich brocade wallpaper, dark wood accents, and tufted cream-colored barstools and a polished bar evoking a 1920s-ish Great Gatsby elegance. Come here for a great cocktail or glass of wine, or bring a date here for an exquisite meal prepped and prepared by Palazzo-Giorgio himself.

Unlike larger restaurants where the chef might not work the line, the kitchen is so small that Palazzo-Giorgio is involved in all aspects of food preparation, right down to shopping for the ingredients he uses every night. Dishes are elegant without being too complicated, and where possible, he makes everything from scratch.

Photo by Mai Pham

Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio of Hawthorn

EOW: So, Hawthorn. How did you get involved in this project? It was a different concept before.

RPG: The original owners intended this on being a private dining facility. They had so many concepts included. It was going to be a wine club with a 10,000-bottle wine room back here. It was going to be small plates. Members were going to be able to call 24 hours in advance and order whatever they wanted for dinner -- you name it, anywhere in the world, and they could have it, with notice. There was going to be a luxury car rental available with Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin for guests that wanted them. There was going to be a chauffeur service for people who wanted to come here pre-theater -- they were very ambitious. And that's just not Houston.

Photos by Mai Pham

Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio, Executive Chef of Hawthorn

What's in a name? For Hawthorn's Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio, it's a reflection of his heritage, his family, a symbol of honor and respect. Granted, the name doesn't roll off the tongue very easily, but it's big and bold, like its six-foot-five-inch tall owner. I still remember the first time I tried his eggplant parmigiania -- a revelation of textures, color and flavor. The execution was flawless, the ingredients pure, an example of Palazzo-Giorgio at his finest. Last week, we sat down with this fine chef for a candid chat about everything from his name to his days as a restaurant owner and his philosophy in creating a menu for Hawthorn.

EOW: So I am with chef...

RPG: Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio.

EOW: That's long name.

RPG: It is. And you know, I changed it to add my mother's maiden name.

EOW: Why did you do that?

RPG: To honor her. Because my upbringing, my culture, my cooking, everything was more from her side of the family, the Palazzo side. So when she passed away in 2010 -- my other restaurant was called Sabetta, and that was named after her; Sabetta's short for Elisabetta -- I just wanted to honor my mom. I went before this judge, and he said, "You sure you want the hyphen in there?" And I said, "Yeah" -- because that was the whole point of including her in my last name, but he kept on insisting that I think about it.

Photos by Mai Pham

An open-faced tuna salad melt at Liberty Kitchen.

This week, we sat down for a chat with chef de cuisine Travis Lenig of Liberty Kitchen, who left a fine-dining kitchen to join the team at Liberty Kitchen about a year and a half ago. There, he and his team regularly feed hundreds of customers a day with what he calls "good, honest food" in "man's portions," which we taste today.

If I were to describe the cuisine at Liberty Kitchen to someone, I would definitely call it gourmet comfort food. Many of the items on the menu are rich and decadent, but there really is a little bit of everything for everyone. Most notably, Liberty Kitchen has great seafood options and some of the best oysters in the city.

Photos by Mai Pham

You need to try Travis Lenig's fried chicken.

Yesterday, our chat with Travis Lenig of Liberty Kitchen revealed a bit about his background as a chef and how he loves eating spicy food. Today, our conversation moves to the work he's doing at Liberty Kitchen, including his famous fried chicken.

EOW: Let's talk about your menu here at Liberty Kitchen. I know it's a collaborative effort between you and Lance Fegan, isn't it? You came a bit after the fact. Was most of it here?

TL: Most of it was here, but what we did was we fine-tuned the dishes. We went over and redid them a little bit, made them to where it was a little bit easier for the guys to understand, plate it up and do things correctly. The way that it was here when I got here, there were people that weren't understanding, and you kind of have to babysit and teach them, and go through step-by-step on how you want something done. It was taught to them -- I just do think they understood it, so went over it again and fine-tuned it and got it to where it was a machine that kept rolling so we could get as many customers in and out as possible, but also have a great dish at the same time.

Photo by Mai Pham

Travis Lenig of Liberty Kitchen loves his food as spicy as possible.

Every single time I've been to Liberty Kitchen in the Heights, it's packed. There's something about the space -- the decor, the layout, the smooth, sleek lines of the booths and tabletops, the pop-culture-ish photos of Houston on the walls -- that's immediately inviting. It's a place to gather with friends or to go by yourself and just hang out, noshing on food that is comfortable yet just decadent enough that you end up craving more.

In the open kitchen, you might see salmon smoking on a cedar plank, or a whole pig roasting, as on the night I was there. And then there's chef de cuisine Travis Lenig, doing the kitchen dance with his team, deftly churning out hundreds of covers a night.

Last week, we sat down for a great chat with the kitchen's maestro, who is gearing up to take over a new location of Liberty Kitchen, which is set to open in the next couple of months.

EOW: How long have you been here?

TL: A year and four months. The restaurant's been open for a year and seven months.

Photos by Mai Pham

Jonathan Jones' scallop, peas, and carrots dish -- just stunning.

Oftentimes, hotel restaurant menus are boring, safe, predictable. Where independent restaurants can take liberties with their menus and be as cutting edge or as esoteric as they want to be, hotel restaurants tend to be more conservative, offering "safe" menu options that are designed to be all things to all people. You get your choice of chicken, beef, fish, salad. How do you do turn safe and staid into something buzz-worthy? How you do you create a menu that is exciting, and yet, fulfills the demands of the hotel restaurant?

This week, we caught up with Monarch at the Hotel Zaza's new executive chef, Jonathan Jones, who is doing exactly that. With his newly launched spring menu, he takes risks and expresses his personality, while staying true to his clientele's wants and needs, creating a menu full of items that you could enjoy if you were a traveler in need of comfort, or a local looking for some great food. Let's taste what his creative juices have come up with.

Photo by Mai Pham

Chef Jonathan Jones working the Feast with the Beasts event during his first month at Monarch

Yesterday, we chatted with chef Jonathan Jones of Monarch at the Hotel Zaza about his role as a chef in a big hotel restaurant. Today we talk about some of his personal influences, get his thoughts on soul and comfort food, and a sneak peek into the new Spring menu.

EOW: Let's take a look at your menu. I notice there are a lot of Asian and ethnic influences.

JJ: Which kind of speaks to my background, which also to me speaks to Houston, which is we are one of the most multi-ethnic cities in the United States. Being the energy capital of the United States, being a port city, being coastal -- all this lends itself to ethnic and cultural diversity. I mean, you go out and you dine, and you can find anything in Houston.

Jonathan Jones of Monarch at the Hotel Zaza

Walk into the lobby of the Hotel Zaza, and as you're checking in you'll see a life-size billboard of the hotel restaurant Monarch's new executive chef, Jonathan Jones. Next to him, the caption reads: "Don't let the picture fool you. He is not that serious." And in big bold letters, it says: "Only about his food!"

For guests staying at the hotel, Jones' face re-appears on placards in each guest room and on in-room dining trays, all part of a campaign to show that Hotel Zaza has retained one of Houston's most prominent and much-loved chefs.

For his part, Jones, who is probably most known for his role at Beaver's and through social media under his former Twitter handle @PapaBeav, has been noticeably quiet since he joined Hotel Zaza's Monarch Restaurant. We caught up with him last week for a chat about his new role and what he's been doing since he left the independent restaurant world for a position at one of Houston's finest hotels.

Photos by Mai Pham

The blue crabs, or "cua rang muoi" -- out-of-this-world delicious.

This week, we got to know the chef and owner of Crawfish and Noodles, Trong Nguyen. We learned how he struggled to maintain the restaurant while holding down a full-time job in a totally different industry; how he quit his job to take over the restaurant's kitchen and operations; and how he turned what would have been an unsuccessful restaurant into one where there are lines out the door on weekends. His restaurant is emblematic of this Vietnamese crawfish movement that has swept across Houston, a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by the national media. Today we taste some of his food.

We start with his crawfish, large, selected crawfish that are almost all the same size. There is only one sauce. You can get it mild, medium or hot, depending on your sprice preference. Mine happens to be mild.