{"id":457298,"date":"2025-12-19T07:43:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T07:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/457298\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T07:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T07:43:20","slug":"top-fort-worth-chefs-share-their-favorite-holiday-traditions-how-restaurant-maestros-celebrate-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/457298\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Fort Worth Chefs Share Their Favorite Holiday Traditions \u2014 How Restaurant Maestros Celebrate at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth chefs often put in long hours through the holidays so diners can spend time together with loved ones at beloved restaurants like Emilia\u2019s, Provender Hall and Clay Pigeon. Amid the hustle of busiest time of year, we caught up with some top Fort Worth chefs who shared the family traditions they hold onto during this festive time of year.<\/p>\n

Chef Victor Villarreal<\/p>\n

After three decades in the food service industry, Chef Victor Villarreal tells us that finding time to gather as a family has always required careful planning. Whether Victor, his wife Misty and their family go out for dinner or head to his sister\u2019s home for chicken flautas and menudo, Villarreal notes it\u2019s a \u201cspecial time\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a blended family,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen (Misty and I) get the holiday to ourselves, we enjoy crabs, caviar, coconut cake and champagne. That\u2019s the point \u2014 to have a good time and relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villarreal recently started a monthly dinner series held at the Star Cafe and Cocktail<\/a>\u2019s side dining room, which Villarreal calls the Devil\u2019s Den. As GM and executive chef at the Star Cafe, life is busy for the venerable Fort Worth chef. These days he\u2019s learned to enjoy home life and time with his kids. Treasuring those moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have our dogs and kids, I\u2019m enjoying being back to a family man,\u201d Villarreal tells PaperCity Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

\"476139195_10162930650402577_3587847261915384865_n\"<\/a>Chef Victor Villarreal tells us that finding time to gather as a family has always taken planning. (Courtesy)
\nChef Jenna Kinard<\/p>\n

Chef Jenna Kinard has much to be grateful for these days. This spring will see the opening of three projects she will head as executive chef: The Public Market Cafe & Goods<\/a>, Bar Willow and a lavish Southern food restaurant dubbed Madrone. Coming from a big family means Christmas Day dinners are usually potluck-style, she notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing fancy or overthought,\u201d\u00a0 Kinnard says. \u201cEveryone just brings their go-to dish like most families do. And yet somehow, every single year, we still end up with five whole turkeys and two hams. No one plans it. It just happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it\u2019s basically our tradition that we each get a huge bag of leftovers to take home and eat over the next week, which we\u2019re all totally OK with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fort<\/a>Fort Worth Chef Jenna Kinard has much to be grateful for these days.
\nChef Marcus Paslay<\/p>\n

Clay Pigeon Chef Marcus Paslay\u2019s kids and guests alike look forward to making sugar cookies from an old family recipe during the holidays. With an array of colorful icing and candy toppings, the tradition becomes a fun \u2014 and admittedly messy \u2014 way to unwind and spend time with friends. Christmas Eve comes with its own traditions of candlelight service at church, followed by dinner at the home of Paslay\u2019s parents, and then each family member opens one present.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom always cooks pot roast,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll bring a side item, bake bread, or make a dessert. I might roast butternut squash with brown butter, sage, Marcona almonds, and dried cranberries. We make a sweet cornbread with honey butter to slather over the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"December<\/a>Clay Pigeon is a Fort Worth restaurant favorite.<\/p>\n

To Paslay, the holidays are a time to celebrate Jesus\u2019 birth and spend time with friends and family. The Fort Worth chef and restaurateur<\/a> says he is grateful for his family\u2019s good health and the success of his restaurants during a challenging time for the entire industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth chefs often put in long hours through the holidays so diners can spend time together with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":457299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-457298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115745116913980021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}