The 405 diningscape proved historically delicious last year

The best bits and bites of 2023

When 2022 produced Florence’s Restaurant’s American Classics award from the James Beard Foundation Award, the pressure for 2023 to come up with an encore was always going to be a problem.

2023 ultimately invited 2022 to hold its beer.

Both Jeff Chanchaleune and Andrew Black were invited to Chicago as finalists for Best Chef Southwest Award and Black narrowly edged Chanchaleune and three others for the prize. As I wrote about last week, the storylines went national.

So what did that kind of attention mean to local chefs and their restaurants, cafes, diners, food trucks, counters, and ghost kitchens? Opportunity. And when opportunity knocks, the flavors tend to get bolder, richer and more ambitious.

Chefs Waseem Ahmed, Andrew Black and Gabe Lewis at Chefs Fest 2023.

In my first year away from The Oklahoman, I’ve experienced food as good as I ever did in the 15 years I covered local food for it. Oklahoma City has never been a better place to dine thanks to the passion put into purpose by our local food-service community and the chefs who are its poet laureates.

My old friend and mentor John Bennett once got a curious phone call from his friend and mentor James Beard, who was calling him from the cellar of the Hightower Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Before America’s original culinarian could offer JB a job as executive chef and general manager of what would be called The Cellar at Hightower, JB cut him off, saying: “Why? Nobody there knows how to eat!”

Oklahoma chefs now regularly gain national attention, which was exactly what JB hoped he could bring to town when he accepted that job 60 years ago this month. When chef Black accepted that Best Chef Southwest award, it had JB’s fingerprints and the fingerprints of so many other chefs who followed since 1964 all over it.

That’s why as good as the list from 2023 is, I expect 2024 will be even better. But before we get too deep into the new calendar, let’s mold a little retrospective wax out of my 10 Most Memorable Meals from the last one:

1.       Hokkaido Scallops/Jeff Chanchaleune of Ma Der Lao Kitchen

Technically, I had them on four different occasions, and they kept getting better. That’s kind of the point. With its fish sauce coconut milk zu, Thai chili, lime, basil oil and mint, I expect this dish will be among the hits they play at chef Jeff’s 10-course tribute dinner in 40 years.

2.       BBQ/Phat Tabb’s BBQ

I’ve first met Tabb back in 2010 after he’d won $10,000 on the first season of “Chopped,” and he was still working for Emeril Lagasse in New Orleans. The Idabel-native moved home during the pandemic, and my visit with him last May offered some truly spiritual moments of barbecue. Nothing is better to eat than his beef belly confit “burnt ends.” Nothing. Except maybe his house-made bologna. Or the ribs. Or the brisket. Don’t believe me? Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn recently echoed those sentiments. If you drive down this year, you’ll pray the whole way home he can find some property in the 405 diningscape in 2024.

3.       Eggplant Miso/JK by Chef King

The arrival of JK by Chef King was a bit of a social media circus. It burst through a cloud of pomp and circumstantial evidence of Michelin stars that never materialized, but a very fun, very pink restaurant did. And the food and drinks are good, too. Chef Kingshuk Dey isn’t yet an Okie, but the long, winding path that brought him here has all the earmarks of an Oklahoma legend’s origin story. The Eggplant Miso might be the seed whence it’s sewn. Crispy edges conceal a hot and luscious center that has the curious ability to simultaneously melt upon the palate and trigger the brain’s begging mechanism.

4.       Mushroom Pie and Leeks/Bradford House

Because I didn’t want one restaurant to have two places on the list, I fused my two favorites from The Bradford House from last year. The leeks were a dish Stangroom developed after an inspired summer of stages along the East Coast, the Mushroom Pie was the brainchild of prep cook Andrew Landrith.

5.       PBLT/Lobby Bar

At long last, lunch returned to the Lobby Bar at Will Rogers Theatre this summer. Chefs Kurt Fleischfresser and Jason Jones developed the menu together, but the item that I still can’t stop thinking about is the Pork Belly Lettuce and Tomato sandwich. Chef Jones’s brainchild, this BLT ditches fried bacon slices for a rich roulade of pork belly.

6.       Pastrami/Edge Craft BBQ

Zach Edge’s Hill Country barbecue emporium does everything right, but for me the smoked pastrami is dialed in to 11.

7.       Charred Octopus/Patrono Italian Restaurant

This has long beeIf the idea of eating octopus frightens you, try this one. If you love octopus, try this one. Every little thing chef Jonathan Krell and his sous chef Ashley Gonzalez do with octopus is magic.

8.       Burger/Folger’s Drive-in

In a year when I had the rare opportunity to eat a fried-onion burger straight from the spatula of OG El Reno stove-minder Marty Hall at Sid’s Drive-In, the burger I can’t forget came from Ada, America. Folger’s Drive-In is older than Sid’s Drive-In, but it doesn’t serve fried-onion burgers. What it does serve, is the same perfect example of a basic American hamburger as you are ever likely to eat that is has since 1935. It’s not thick, tall nor broad, but it is juicy and it will make your eyes roll back in your head through a sea of nostalgia.

9.       Botana Alta Mar/Sabor de la Baja

There is better Mexican food in Oklahoma City and there is better seafood, but there is no better Mexican-style seafood and certainly no place more fun than Sabor de la Baja. The Botana Alta Mar is the ideal centerpiece.

10.   Pepperoni Pizza/Dado’s Pizza

For years, Stella Modern Italian served my favorite pizza in the 405 diningscape. Then I had the pepperoni at Dado’s, a new arrival in late 2022.