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DR. CLINT MEYER www.dallaseyeworks.com

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What is your ideal comfort food?

It changes, but I would say chicken pot pie. But from scratch. I make a damn good chicken pot pie. That’s something I make when I have friends coming over.

Your wife’s family is coming in for the weekend — what do you cook?

Pasta, salad, good bread. Typically her mom will bring a bunch of Italian baked goods. She’s an amazing baker. I probably cook Italian more than anything while I’m at home. We’ve actually talked about opening an Italian restaurant.

If you could have a meal prepared by anyone, whom would you have cook for you?

Paul Prudhomme. I’d let him choose what he wanted to make. He’s really the one who boosted Cajun cooking in this country. He was basically the originator of blackening, which you see everywhere now.

What would you have for your last meal on earth?

A really, really good macaroni and cheese. Ribs, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes and gravy. No vegetables because it’d be my last meal, so I wouldn’t need them.

What dish have you created that you’re really proud of? My crawfish enchilada.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever cooked?

Well, there are two answers to that question: There’s failed recipes, and every chef has a hundred of those. And then there’s the ‘you screwed up and you’re embarrassed about it.’ That’s usually early in your career. One time, I cooked swordfish for like 250 people, and swordfish can become very dry. I believe I grilled it, and I had done several pans of it. After serving about half of it, I tasted one of the pieces, and it was so dry. The bad thing was that it was for Jerry Jones and a bunch of his friends, and nobody ever told me it was bad. I don’t think I’ve cooked swordfish since then. I’ve never been able to get over that. But those are the experiences you learn from.

What is the strangest thing that has ever given you inspiration as a cook?

Probably eating rattlesnake when I was a kid. Having eaten all the weird things in life — that one thing in particular — I realized everything can be eaten.

—Brittany Nunn

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Tom Fleming

In a parallel world somewhere, Tom Fleming is the host of a wildly popular reality TV show. Viewers love him — he’s loud, large, animated and charismatic, he employs the F word more frequently than a teenager says “like,” and he has the culinary chops to back it all up. Problem is, Fleming hates those shows. In fact, he says, when “Top Chef” producers called him, he turned them down. After Fleming, a Chicago-area native, briefly considered the Catholic priesthood (yes, really), he did copious time in Chicago,

San Antonio and Dallas kitchens — from McDonald’s to Cajun dives and a brother’s breakfast diner to James Beard Awardwinning establishments and everything in between — before opening Crossroads Diner four years ago. These days, he and his wife, Karen, spend Tuesday through Sunday mornings and afternoons at the large, art deco-esque eatery at Walnut Hill and Central. Look for the Sticky Bun girl.

At home, what are your refrigerator staples?

Milk, Dijon mustard, pesto, roasted peppers, olives, capers, garlic, onions. We eat pretty simply. When I was growing up, the youngest of seven, that’s how my mother taught me. You have a lean protein, vegetable, some kind of carbohydrate — sweet potatoes, couscous.

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You do the cooking at home? Nightly. My wife, Karen, does not cook, by choice. She is a phenomenal cook and has an incredible palate. But all those years I was cooking at night, she was home cooking for our daughters. The first night we were here I came home and said, ‘What’s for dinner?’ and she says, ‘I am never cooking again!’ She grocery shops, though.

Where?

Central Market and Kroger for the staples.

Do your girls cook?

My youngest daughter is a fabulous baker. She won ribbons for her brownie recipe two times at the State Fair. The oldest is good, too, but she prefers to create menus — ‘Hey Dad, you should make this, this and this …’

Unexpected dinner guests — what do you make?

The same way a chef comes up with specials once around the walk-in. You come up with a chef’s special by going into the walk-in refrigerator, scanning it for ingredients and creating something from what you see. You can do the same thing at home. Some of my best ideas have come from once-around-the-walk-in.

Essential home-kitchen gadget?

My Henckels Chef’s Knife, offset serrated knife, the wok and my cast-iron pan.

Why did you turn down a “Top Chef” audition?

I think it is the most completely asinine waste of time. I do not fault anyone who has done it. In fact, having friends — no names named because they have confidentiality agreements — who have done it and shared their experiences is partly how I know it to be such a ludicrous experiment.

Do you watch the shows?

Never. My daughter will. She’ll say, ‘Dad, wanna watch Cutthroat Kitchen with me?’ No. No. People will ask me why I don’t watch them, and I ask them, ‘What’s your profession?’ and maybe they say lawyer and I say, ‘Well, do you watch lawyer shows?’ and they’ll say no, those are bullshit, and I say, ‘Exactly.’

What do you watch?

The lawyer shows! I like sitcoms. I like The ‘Mentalist’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Longmire’ on A&E.

Your favorite comfort food?

Pork schnitzel. Pork tenderloin, breaded and sautéed, with rice pilaf and steamed, crushed peas, was the favorite dish my mother made.

Ever had to cook for a big celebrity or someone who made you nervous?

Yes. When I was working under Chef Jean Joho, in Chicago at Everest and later Brasserie Jo, he led the team cooking for Julia Child’s 80th birthday. We did foie gras for 500 people. Every great chef in the world was there, either cooking or eating. Tons of pressure, and it was executed flawlessly. Years later, she came to Brasserie Jo to eat, she wound up on an elevator with me, she was very complimentary about the foie gras. She said, ‘I love foie gras and I don’t get the whole “it’s cruel” thing.’ I’m like, ‘I agree, ma’am.’ I’ve cooked for other people, but it doesn’t get much better than Julia Child.

If you could have anyone — living or not — cook for you, who would it be? Um, wow. I’d like my mom to cook for me one more time.

Favorite local restaurants?

I like The Grape a lot. Neighborhood Services. There’s a little place in Richardson, Frankie’s Mexican Cuisine. Sevy’s. I don’t have a lot because I don’t go out a lot. Most chefs can’t sit in a restaurant without focusing on everything going on in the dining room. It’s hard to turn it off. When I go, it’s a place where I know the people running it have the same values we do. Then there are the local vendors we use for product — Dallas Mozzarella Company, Empire Bakery and Homestead Heritage, where we get these incredible gluten-free grits.

Strangest source of career inspiration?

The original Taco Cabana in San Antonio. It was in a neighborhood that was a confluence of every bit of culture in San Antonio — you have high school and college students, seminarians, politicians, hookers, bikers from the Crystal Pistol — and at midnight on a Friday, everybody from those categories would be at those picnic tables eating tacos. It was a family business the mom and pop and abuela and cousins lined up, beans simmering, making authentic Tex-Mex food, homemade tortillas with these rustic flavors. You will find a lot of those influences in my food.

Sports teams — Chicago or Dallas?

Chicago teams. I am afflicted with a disease known as Cub fan. Lifelong.

Hobbies?

Fly fishing. It is very relaxing. And woodworking. I love to build — dressers, desks. I have a shop at the house.

The creation you are most proud of?

The Sticky Bun. It took about four months to get it down. Even then, the first few months we were open there were days when we had to throw them out. People came in for the buns because of the sign our pinup girl, Rebecca Buns, on the side of the diner — and I had to tell them we had no buns because the batch sucked. Many buns were tossed in the early days.

—Christina Hughes Babb

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity