Rio Pizza unveils Italian pies with Rio Grande Valley ingredients

What: Rio Pizza, Italian pies w RGV ingredients

Where: The Market at Weslaco, 401 S. Kansas
When: Thursday January 6, 5pm to 7pm
Contact: 956-336-0809 southtexasnation@gmail.com

A portable brick oven is treating local food lovers to pizzas made with local ingredients.
  Alberto Gulino and his Italian heritage family have generations of pizza making behind them.
  But Italian heritage comes second to making a pizza with local ingredients.
  Rio Pizza, Alberto's mobile pizzeria that's outfitted with a wood-burning brick oven, depends on local ingredients for its namesake.
  "We want to live up to the name Rio Pizza," Gulino said emphatically.
  That's why Alberto sets up Rio Pizza every Thursday at the Weslaco
Farmers' Market, where he draws from the market's offerings to create
his menu, including cheese, tomato, field onion, lamb sausage and
more. Because of Alberto's commitment to using local food, the Texas Food
Revolution recruited him to their organization.
  The Texas Food Revolution is a team of volunteer and professional
chefs that make food using local ingredients.
  Gulino, a public school teacher at the IDEA public schools by day,
said that the the Texas Food Revolution's attempts to promote an
economy that improves our ecology is something that's a win-win for
everyone involved.
  "By simply using local ingredients, I can reduce pesticides,
hormones, antibiotics and chemical fertilizers from reaching our
waterways and ourselves ... but most of all, I can put the best tasting food on my
pizzas," he said.
  "Rio Pizza is what it claims to be, a movable pizzeria that
celebrates food grown and produced in the Rio Grande Valley," he said.
  Texas Food Revolution captain J.R. Garza said that Gulino's
commitment to using local food made him a perfect candidate for
inclusion in the group.
  "Here at the Texas Food Revolution, our first and foremost
commitment is to local food, and Alberto demonstrates that commitment
in a very delicious way. His brick oven pizzas made with his Italian
heritage know-how and topped with local ingredients are a real treat.
He even uses local mesquite to fire his oven," Garza said.
  Sample Gulino's creations at the Market at Weslaco, a full fledged
farmers' market that meets Thursdays 5pm to 7pm at 401 S. Kansas.
   Read more about The Market and The Texas Food Revolution at www.texasfoodrevolution.com

Grapefruit Pie Bale Off, Saturday Feb. 11 sponsored by Rio Queen-Red Cooper Citrus

What: Grapefruit pie bake off 
When: Sat Feb 11, 11am
Where: The Market, 519 S. 17th, McAllen
Fee: $5 entry fee per pie

Win $500 in cash and prizes by submitting the best grapefruit pie.
 Your pie will be judged by local chefs and food critics with a keen sense and value for local food and fresh recipes. There will be 2 categories for the pies: 1) Traditional and 2) Locavore.
    Category 1, Traditional, allows any ingredients but must include grapefruit from the Rio Grande Valley.     
   Category 2, Locavore requires at least 75 percent of ingredients to be grown or produced in the Rio Grande Valley.
   Call 336.0809 to sign up, email southtexasnation@gmail.com  Also, sign up at The Market at Alhambra or The Market at Weslaco. $5 entry fee per pie. Market times and details at www.texasfoodrevolution.com

Matrha Ware's Grapefruit Pie Recipe & Cook Off, sponsored by Rio Queen-Red Cooper Citrus

Grapefruit pie, coming up!

Does anyone remember the famous Grapefruit Pie, a sweet-bittersweet creation that celebrated the Rio Grande Valley's bounteous citrus season?
    Martha Ware does, a 92 year old McAllen resident who shared her recipe with Lana De Leon from Namaste Valley magazine just in time for Christmas. Martha let Lana publish the recipe, a decades-old tribute to gelatinous deserts. 

Martha Ware with the goods

   This Grapefruit Pie is a living history that septuagenarian Martha Ware can explain to you in detail. Come out to The Market at Alhambra on Saturday 10am-1pm Dec.24 (the morning of Christmas Eve) to sample this pie as Lana De Leon headlines the Texas Food Revolution with samples of Martha Ware's Ruby Red Grapefruit Pie.  Check out the recipe by clicking here. The Texas Food Revolution is a team of volunteer chefs that demonstrates local food with unique flair.   Also, sign up for the Rio Queen-Red Cooper Grapefruit Pie Contest at The Market at Alhambra on February 11 to celebrate National Grapefruit month. Sponsored By Rio Queen-Red Cooper Citrus in Mission,  this Grapefruit Pie Contest pays homage to a legacy of the Rio Grande Valley farm economy that continues to thrive. Renowned for its citrus worldwide, Rio Queen-Red Cooper Citrus Company ships Ruby Red grapefruit to global destinations each grapefruit season, while supplying Winter Texans and Rio Grande Valley residents with fresh, ripe, luscious grapefruit as well.
   To join the Grapefruit Rio Queen-Red Cooper Grapefruit Pie Bake-Off, call 956.336.0809, email southtexasnation@gmail.com or joining this Facebook event. HERE'S THE RECIPE:

Martha Wares Grapefruit Pie

by Lana De Leon on Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 7:58pm

Grapefruit Pie 

1 1/2 cups grapefruit juice
1 cup water
5 tablespoons Tapioca Flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
Dash of Salt
Red Food Coloring
4 Grapefruits sectioned sweetened and drained well

Combine juice water, flour sugar and salt.Cook in heavy pan until thick and clear. Remove and add coloring
Cool to warm
Pour a little of filling into baked and cooled pie crust arrange sections and add rest of filling.

Refrigerate and serve with whipped cream.

MasterChef USA contestant Seby Joseph named Captain of Texas Food Revolution

Joseph

Seby Joseph, the youngest contestant to compete on celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's hit MasterChef USA cooking competition, has joined the Texas Food Revolution -- a group of volunteer chefs who demonstrate locally-produced food at the Market at Alhambra on Saturday mornings.
  Joseph, an 18 year-old resident of McAllen, Texas, will demonstrate a dish using ingredients from the Market at Alhambra on Saturday, October 1, from 10am-1pm at 17th & Fresno in McAllen.
   "I am all up for it, man," Joseph said about being named Captain of the Texas Food Revolution.
   Now a culinary student at the Art Institute in Austin, Joseph's path to notoriety started in the Winter of 2011 when he was accepted as a contestant on the MasterChef USA television series. He was the first contestant chosen by Ramsay to pass the cutting and chopping challenge of the competition, selected from a pool of thousands of competitors to participate in the televised portion of the competition. He was eliminated in the second episode among the final 38 competitors.
   "I left high school to participate in the second season of Fox's MasterChef USA. You can imagine how upset and worried my parents were that I might be jeopardizing my college future by leaving high school during the final semester of my senior year," explained Joseph.
   "But I had to follow my dream, and the chance to learn from chefs Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliott, and famed restauranteur Joe Bastianich, was too rare of an opportunity for me to waste," Joseph said.
   Besides hosting the U.S. version of the television series Hell’s Kitchen, Ramsay also owns several restaurants, hosts other TV shows and is a noted cookbook and biographical author.
  Elliot is also a restaurateur who was named “Best New Chef” by Food and Wine magazine in 2004. Bastianich is a well-known vintner and restaurateur with establishments in New York Las Vegas, Italy and Argentina. Together they host MasterChef USA.
   Though Joseph studies culinary arts in Austin, he said that he considers McAllen his home, a place where his parents live and where he moved to from India when he was 13 years old.
   Joseph said that he's joining the Texas Food Revolution because he believes in the quality of food that's grown and raised locally, and that he's eager to help South Texas' small farmers and artisan food producers thrive.
   "I'll be in downtown McAllen taking part in this stunning event. I'll be cooking some local favorites with a little Indian twist, always with fresh, seasonal and more importantly local ingredients," Joseph said.
   Now graduated from high school, Joseph pursues his career in culinary arts independently, making the difficult decision to act against the wishes of his parents, who hoped he would pursue a more traditional career, he said.
   The Texas Food Revolution will gather donations during Joseph's appearance at the Market at Alhambra Saturday to help with his culinary school expenses.
   Joseph joins a growing list of Texas Food Revolution captains that includes James Canter, chef at Alhambra restaurant, Lana De Leon, publisher of Namaste Valley magazine, Gene Carangal, publisher of Valley Foodie food blog, Evana Vleck, marketing director of the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce, and more than a half dozen other volunteers aiming to promote small farm and ranch food production in the Texas Valley.

END

Press contact
David Robledo 956.203.4152

Interviews with Seby Joseph and other Texas Food Revolution captains can be arranged

Farm to Table Dinner by the One and Only James Canter

What: Farm to Table Dinner by Chef James Canter
When: Sept 16, 2011, 7pm
Where: Private McAllen home open to anyone who wishes to join
Cost: $95, proceeds will benefit the Texas Food Revolution

You may have seen Chef James Canter in his youth rocking out backyard grill gatherings like an undiscovered Bobby Flay in the Guerilla Gourmet, an independent cooking show that Canter starred in. See an episode of this classic sleeper by clicking here.
   These days Canter is a little more serious about cooking, but he's still having just as much fun.
   Instead of eating drunken bearded clams on surfboards, Canter now has his culinary sights focused on promoting small-farms of the Texas Valley.
   Last year he opened a Farmers' Market in McAllen inside the Alhambra Restaurant, Bar, and Hookah Lounge, a market that you may have read about in The Monitor newspaper.  You might have read about Canter's farm to table dinners there too, as seen here.
Now everyone has the chance to participate in one of Canter's famed farm to table dinners at an exciting McAllen home. To sign up, stop by The Market at Alhambra this Saturday at 17th & Fresno in McAllen between 10am and 1pm and look for the Texas Food Revolution table. We'll reserve your spot and also offer free samples of food made using ingredients purchased at the market. Or call 956.994.9754 to reserve a spot.
   Proceeds from this dinner will help fund the Texas Food Revolution, a team of volunteer chefs who sample local food to the public.
   Eat local. It's thousands of miles better.

Please forward this message to anyone who loves fresh food.

Brownsville's eco-bus heads to the Texas Food Revolution

Boswell, eco-bus Captain, right

The eco-bus created by Brownsville's Rio Bravo Wildlife Institute that runs on discarded vegetable oil is heading to the Texas Food Revolution after finishing a six-city, statewide tour.
    The Institute will display the bus from10am-1pm at the Texas Food Revolution this Saturday August 6th at Alhambra Restaurant on 17th street in McAllen.
   After a long haul on the road, eco-bus captain and RBWI outreach coordinator Joe Boswell said the trip is a welcome one.
   "It's been a long three-months out on the road," Boswell said in an interview with Fresh Tex-Mex.
   "The trip to McAllen to visit the Texas Food Revolution has been a long time coming," Boswell said, "and I'll definitely enjoy it".

The eco bus on its Texas tour

   Boswell, who doesn't own a car,  can be seen riding his small silver bicycle around Brownsville, a bicycle that folds to the size of a sun hat.
   Click here for details about the Texas Food Revolution.

SATURDAYS 10am-1pm, 519 S. 17th Street, McAllen

The Texas Food Revolution is the hottest weekly food celebration in the Texas Valley. Held at Alhambra Restaurant on McAllen's sexy 17th Street every Saturday, it's the perfect spot to rejuvenate and fill up on fresh-squeezed juices, prepared foods like Gulf-shrimp and mango ceviche and French pastries. Or sit down and enjoy a daring brunch menu. Don't forget to stock up on locally-grown, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, fresh farm eggs, and local ranch beef, pork, chicken, lamb and more. Vendors at the Texas Food Revolution offer a discount or freebie to people who shop with cloth or paper bags.
   Farmers & ranchers are the leaders in the Texas Food Revolution. Ask them any question about their food, and they'll look you in the eye with the answer.
   Behind the farmers are an army of chefs and home cooks who know that food grown locally is better.  When gas was cheap, our food supply system became dependent on shipping food across countries and continents. Food lost its soul along the way. Now, this Texas Valley soil is home to one of the strongest food revolutions in the country, with  fresh and delicious, locally grown and produced food to help everyone live full, happy lives ... while promoting a local small-farm economy and saving taxpayers untold indigent health care money.
   The Texas Food Revolution is being fought on terrain where a Food Revolution has been waged since 1910, when Francisco Madero launched an attack against the autocrat despot Porfirio Diaz.
   The Texas Valley, the war's north-eastern boundary, was a hideout for the rebel heroes like Pancho Villa, who became a symbol of a people's movement that fought for the right of every Mexican citizen to have land to grow food on.
   The farmers of the Texas Food Revolution grow food on this same soil that remains a sanctuary to rebel heroes who work for the people's access to fresh food.
   Get your food from the Texas Food Revolution every Saturday 10am-1pm at the Market at Alhambra, 519 S. 17th, McAllen.
   Buy locally-grown. It's thousands of miles better.
   To participate in the Texas Food Revolution as a vendor, call 956.203.4152 or email foodrebel@texasfoodrevolution.com