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catalan’s chef chris shepherd shops the farmers’ markets —
and shares an accidental recipe
BY janice schindler
Photography by sylvester garza
Recipes have varied origins. Many begin as family traditions, passed on through generations. Others, like the Peach Melba, are created in honor of a famed celebrity. But the crispy pork belly with Steen’s cane syrup, a popular item on the menu
at Houston’s current hot spot, Catalan, began as
a pork shoulder cooking accident rescued by childhood memories.
“It started out as disaster, almost a joke, and now the crispy bone-in pork shoulder with Marker’s Mark glaze is a must for every festive family and friends occasion,” groans Chris Shepherd, Catalan’s chef and a managing partner.
The recipe evolved from an afternoon cooking accident at Randy Evans’ house. At the time, best friends Evans and Shepherd were the dynamic duo in the kitchen at Brennan’s, and when they weren’t behind the stoves at Brennan’s, they would cook at each other’s home.
“I had seasoned a pork shoulder and put it on the grill with the intent to sear it. We were joking around, having a few drinks, I lost track of time. All of a sudden, Randy taps me on the arm and points to the grill. Flames and smoke were everywhere.”
The quick-thinking Shepherd, who graduated from the Art Institute of Houston’s culinary program, fought to salvage the dish and his reputation. He knew the burnt exterior would taste bitter. “So I thought, ‘I’ll just throw it in the oven to finish cooking and add something sweet to counter balance the bitterness.’”
Buried in his taste memory was a dish his mom served every Christmas morning in Tulsa. “She took some kind of skinless breakfast sausage, seared the heck out of them, added brown sugar and apricot nectar — called them rum sausages.”
Recalling that charred, sweet, meaty, fatty sensation, Shepherd surveyed Evans’ pantry, grabbed the Marker’s Mark, threw in some brown sugar and began basting like a man possessed. Once done, the pork looked completely burned and charred. “But the quarter inch outer layer was sugary and spicy, simultaneously meaty and fatty — and delicious,” recalls Shepherd.
The notoriety of the dish took off from there. “Now I have to make it for every festive occasion — even in Mexico.” Every Christmas, Shepherd and his wife, Rocio Gonzalez, escape to her parents’ home in Juarez, where the crispy, crusty pork is served next to the Gonzalez family’s traditional tamales. Once done with his tamale making (Shepherd is the sole male at the tamale-making ritual), he must cook his famed pork.
“My wife’s cousin said if I put this on a stick and sell it as a pork pop, I would sell millions,” says Shepherd. “When I was developing the menu for Catalan, I started playing around with the idea of sweet, charred, meaty, fatty and came up with the cubes of pork belly speared with sugar cane.”
As for the cauliflower and goat cheese gratin, Shepherd, a longtime proponent of locally grown produce, looks to the Houston farmers’ markets for stimulus. “The underlying philosophy of my food is local agriculture. Without farms, there would be no food. I feel very strongly about supporting local growers.”
He lives his philosophy by shopping Houston’s farmers’ markets every Saturday morning with either his wife or his sous chefs. “When I have the guys with me, we check out the produce at the stalls and spontaneously create menu specials based on what we buy that day.”
With the same quick wit and culinary intuition that saved the pork shoulder and created the pork belly pops, Shepherd turns locally grown and frequently maligned cauliflower into a scrumptious Christmas side dish. And his creativity takes the peak-season Meyer lemons beyond the mundane lemon tart, offering them up as crepes as sweet closure to a seasonally appropriate holiday feast.
CATALAN
5555 Washington ave. Houston, TX
713.426.4260
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