Texas Progressive ROM THE PRISTINE, responsibly sourced menu at Plank Seafood & Provisions in Austin, the dizzyingly beautiful pastry creations of Common Bond in Houston, the garden lush and deluxe fresh offerings of Paradiso in Dallas, to the tre authentic, provincial French temptations of Mon Chou Chou in San Antonio, the Lone Star state has an amazing chef for every palette. Discover the all-star chefs igniting the highest level of cuisine in this dynamic Texas Progressive.
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by Kelli Colaco
Austin / Plank Seafood & Provisions Corporate Chef Tony Gentile Tony Gentile, the Corporate Chef for prolific Flagship Restaurant Group, was born and raised in Houston TX and uniquely balances his chef hat with his business brain. Recently included on the 2021 Chef Power List in Restaurant Hospitality magazine, Chef Gentile talks us through his multidimensional culinary journey and shares his passion for one of his favorite venues with Flagship, Plank Seafood & Provisions in Austin, TX. Superpower My wife will tell you that I’m extremely obsessive-compulsive. And I’ve also had the luxury of growing through this business, not just from the food side, but through all the technology that we put into place. Though I do anchor the food program, there are all kinds of things inside of our business that I’ve got to focus on over the years that have just made me so well-rounded. Responsible Seafood Passion We’re really serious about seafood. Talking with The Chefs’ Warehouse over a period of time, I can see that there are some parallels there. But for us, we have a really strong responsible sourcing metric that we use. We partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium a few years ago, which is at the forefront of responsible fish sourcing or seafood sourcing. I hate to use the word sustainability because it’s so loaded, and everybody’s definition of it’s a little bit different.
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Plank’s menu is all 100% responsibly sourced. Follow the Quality Shrimp: The CW Connection We got introduced to CW by proxy, because of a shrimp that I followed for a very long time. (See chefs’ picks below for details.) It’s the best shrimp out there. We greatly look forward to working with CW more as time goes on, especially once we can get our heads out of the water with the eight projects we’re currently working on. Pyramid of Success Our ongoing success is founded in the core group of guys that started this. We really lean on each other. If there was turmoil inside of these relationships, which you see a lot in this industry, we would be nowhere. Humble Future Plans We’ve got 40 projects and four new concepts that we’re currently developing between 2022 and 2023. We spent 20 years getting to where we’re at, and we just feel like we’re hitting our stride. Chef Tony Gentile’s Top CW Picks: Oishii EZ Peal Shrimp 13/15 FAO 34 Octopus 6/8 Valrhona Manjari 64% Valrhona Opalys 33%
