Jon Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine

August 3, 2009
Though he never quite defines "fine Texas cuisine," Bonnell's curious mix of Cajun, Tex-Mex and local game certainly ups the ante for cowboy cooking. Bonnell's modified classics highlight the unique characteristics of game meats like venison (as a tartare, carpaccio, and cheesesteak), quail (fried legs, ravioli), elk (tacos and chops) and buffalo (rib empanadas, smoked tenderloin with whiskey cream sauce). Preparations are often involved: one must home-smoke a beef tenderloin for his Tenderloin Nacho Tower appetizer, and Grilled Polenta takes a full day of preparation. Unapologetically pretentious, Bonnell prizes the process and calls for difficult-to-source ingredients (prized chukar partridges?), but illustrates his recipes with some of the most poorly-lit and composed photos in recent cookbook memory. To be fair, Bonnell can deliver when he tones down the showmanship; smoked turkey and chicken are simple, surefire hits, and his rotisserie prime rib will fire up those with grills of requisite size (massive). Cooks with a passion for arcane ingredients and homemade everything-and with some vacation time coming up-will get the most out of this volume.