What Dallas-Fort Worth chefs and restaurateurs will be cooking at home on Fourth of July

by Teresa Gubbins

For many of us, Fourth of July consists of a small barbecue crowded with hot dogs or hamburgers. Are chefs like the rest of us? This informal survey of restaurateurs and other food-and-beverage people shares a peek at what they'll cooking-grilling-smoking over the weekend.

K.C. Kronbach, owner of Swirll Winery: Every Fourth of July ever since we've lived in Dallas, we've gone to the Lakewood parade. Then we go to Lakewood Country Club fireworks show. My wife tries to keep us healthy, so we do turkey burgers and the fake hot dogs. We go with the wheat buns -- everything is low-fat. Of course, there's wine: We start off with a nice cool light pinot gris in the early afternoon. Then we have a heavier white, or a glass of red. Our favorite of the week is montelpulciano, an Italian grape we use at the winery.

Brad Murano, blogger at The Brad's Adventure in Food: We're doing a rooftop BBQ deal at my condo building. We do the burger, I do 20-80 ground beef and I like to add fresh jalapenos and avocado. You grill the jalapenos, get them charred and slice them up. You salt the burgers with kosher salt -- just on the outside, not in the beef. The bun is a normal bun, but it has to be buttered and toasted on a grill. You have to have a crust on the bottom surface of the bun where it meets the burger to make it work. To drink: micheladas -- beer with ice and hot sauce and Worcestershire. Or you can do them with bloody Mary mix. But for sure ice and Tecate beer. It's so delicious cold.

Marc Cassel, chef at new restaurant Park, on Henderson Avenue: It's either hot dogs or Chinese food. Chinese food is my comfort food. I like it in the winter, I like it in the summer, I like when I'm happy, I like it when I’m sad. We go to First Chinese BBQ, they have a few locations -- I go to the one in Richardson at Greenville and Main. We’ll be scrambling here at Park to get open on July 15, so I'm not gonna be cooking ANYthing.

Vijay Sadhu, executive chef at Samar, the new restaurant from Stephan Pyles: I do Indian BBQ with a Texas style. I’ll be baking grilled breast of chicken with chipotle sauce. I use garam masala, a mix of Indian spices, I mix that with chipotle, which is used more in Texas than anywhere else. I marinate the chicken and grill it, then serve it with a corn salad. I put red onion, cilantro, diced green mango, and lemon juice.

Pierce Laughter, GM at Vapiano at Mockingbird Station: I’m a hot dog person. I'm a Hebrew National guy, that's the best dog for a generic hot dog, unless you're gonna get wursts of some kind. I lived in Germany for years, and that made me a mustard guy. I like this German mustard, the name is Amora, they have an extra extra scharf, that's spicy. I love spicy foods. I never use French’s.

Gregory Bussey, chef at Victor Tango's and co-owner of B.B.Bop: I'll be working on Saturday, because Victor Tango's will be open. But on July 5, we're planning on cooking something. For July 4, I usually do a marinated tri-tip that I grill at home. I get the full triangle cut and have a little secret marinade I come up with that has molasses, soy, a lot of garlic, and a mix of spices. Try to get it marinated for 24 hours so it'll get nice and dark.

Toby O'Brien, owner of Eat the World: We're gonna get up and have some bloody Marys and mimosas, then go to the Lake Highlands parade. After that, I'm going over to a friend's house where I do all the BBQ. We do ribs, we’re making some sausage, a cheddar jalapeno sausage, plus ribs and brisket. I'll brine them for a day and a half in a sugar- and salt-water brine. Last year, we went down to Oishii and got some sushi for appetizers: We got a Cajun roll, on the border roll, and Philadelphia roll.

Lou Lambert, chef-owner at Lambert's in Fort Worth: Typically for me, I have a bunch of people over, and the last thing I want to is be stuck in the kitchen. That's when we light up the big smoker. We do, if you will, slabs o' meat. Big slow-roasted pork, a big pot of beans, light the smoker, maybe some ribs. This year we're doing a big pork butt that we'll smoke all day. It takes about 8 to 10 hours, a nice slow smoke at about 225 degrees. I do a brown-sugar rub with chile and cumin and a hint of fresh-ground coffee. Then the only thing we gotta do in the kitchen is a big pot of cannellini beans with a lot of tomato and mustard and brown sugar. Everybody brings a potato salad or cole slaw. I'll have big slices of sweet onions and jalapenos and big pickle spears.

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