I’ve known Ben for well more than a decade now. And I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen with him during his tenure at Café Annie. We’ve collaborated on everything from simple rustic country dinners to elaborate & refined dining events. The guiding principle in either case was the same: ‘give each dish a local feel – give the food a feeling of home.’ Great cooking reflects the locale but also the heritage of the cooks in the kitchen. There’s a little bit of home in every cook and you can see it in how they cook. I always told Ben, ‘wherever you go they’ll never take the Texas out of you and whatever you cook there’ll always be a little Texas in every dish.’ 

So now that Ben has the Red Drum, I’m sure there’s a new cuisine being born – a blending of great South Carolina ingredients and influences with a little of Ben’s Texas roots. Maybe they’ll call it South Carolina Tex Cooking or Low Country Texas Cooking or something else kind of catchy. What will be catchy will be the stunning flavors – the best of both worlds or maybe a new flavor, something new you can call home.

--Robert Del Grande
Chef/Owner
Café Annie
Houston, Texas