‘Food & Wine’ spotlights Dallas chef, and now we want to cook

The May 2024 issue of Food & Wine is a colorful look at the world’s best “tastemakers,” as the magazine puts it. Dallas doesn’t make a splash in the 17-page spread honoring Tokyo as the best international food city and Anajak Thai in Los Angeles as the best U.S. restaurant, but keep reading.

The next 10 pages tell the colorful story of Dallas chef Junior Borges.

“From Brazil with Love” recounts Borges’ story as an Afro-Brazilian chef. His impressive climb in NYC kitchens eventually brought him to Dallas as opening chef of Uchi and of Mirador (now back open after a long COVID-19 closure). Borges’ most recent chef gig, at East Dallas Brazilian-American restaurant Meridian, “exalt[ed] Bahian, Brazilian and global flavors,” Food & Wine said. It doesn’t lean on the crutch of Brazilian steakhouses, as chefs before him have done, Food & Wine’s Kayla Stewart wrote.

She’s right: Borges’ Brazilian-American point of view at Meridian had never been done in Dallas. But alas, he left Meridian in October 2023.

Reps at the development and Borges both said the agreement was mutual, but we were left to wonder, how can Meridian go on without its main man?

The restaurant is still there, but gone are Borges’ grilled beach cheese on a stick and his prized Brazilian stew called moqueca, which was created in honor of his grandmother. The kohlrabi Caesar and Calabresa sausage with black beans remain on Meridian’s menu. The restaurant has made a subtle pivot to more of an American steakhouse. It couldn’t continue to be a Brazilian-American restaurant without its Brazilian-American chef.

The Food & Wine story drives home how special Borges’ point of view is.

Food & Wine lists what’s in Borges’ “Brazilian pantry,” offering a crash-course for aspiring chefs: cassava flour for farofa, Malagueta chile for soup and stew, and dendê oil for nearly any dish. The magazine includes five of Borges’ recipes, including the grilled beach cheese that was beloved at Meridian.

Another recipe, for a creamy corn cake called bolo cremoso de milho, was “always on the counter” at Borges’ grandmother’s house, he said in a Dallas Morning News interview.

Since Borges’ exit from Meridian, we wondered who might scoop up Borges. He’s one of Dallas’ best chefs. The Food & Wine story doesn’t spill the beans, but Borges confirmed to The News again that he wants to open another Brazilian restaurant.

“I’ve just got to find the right space and the right partners,” he said.

It can’t come quickly enough. Borges is among “a small but growing number of Black Brazilian chefs who are feeling empowered by their heritage and eager to share another dimension of Black identity,” according to the Food & Wine story. It’s good to see Borges’ name in lights.

Food & Wine’s May 2024 issue is on newsstands now. We found it at Barnes & Noble at 7700 W. Northwest Highway in Dallas.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X (formerly Twitter) at @sblaskovich.