![\"Fort](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FWFWF2026_ForkFire_Photo-Courtesy-of-Nancy-Farrar_-3-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Chef Marcus Pasley served guests at the recent food and wine festival. (Photo by Nancy Farrar)\nTexas\u2019 Top Chefs and Bakers Gather in Cowtown for Fork + Fire<\/p>\n
Like other major cities<\/a>, Fort Worth\u2019s annual food and wine festival offers the chance to sample small plates from top local restaurants and wineries from across the country. The festival raises funds for the Fort Worth Food + Wine Foundation<\/a>, which supports local culinary scholarships, grants, and programs that strengthen the city\u2019s food and hospitality community. The event also serves as a reminder of how tight-knit Fort Worth\u2019s restaurant, bar, and distillery scene is.<\/p>\n At this year\u2019s new Fork + Fire event, acclaimed chefs from across Texas gathered to show off some of their best dishes. Topping my must-try list were the Trill Burger, guava tres leches, and chilled smoked clam. We recently published a festival preview<\/a> featuring interviews with the chefs and bakers behind those plates, which piqued my interest.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a hugger,\u201d Executive Chef Eduardo Osorio said in greeting as we tried Meridian Dallas\u2019\u00a0clam. The meat was lightly smoky and delicate, benefiting from the melon\u2019s mild sweetness and the nuoc cham\u2019s complex flavors. In a nearby tent, Austin\u2019s Mariela Camacho served one of the most sublimely pleasurable small plates of the day with her guava tres leches. Guava notes hit first, followed by rich cream and subtle hints of rum. While we chatted up Camacho, Bob Somsith from Austin-based Lao\u2019d Bar came by to introduce himself to her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou both drove from Austin to Fort Worth to meet for the first time?\u201d<\/p>\n Somsith laughed, replying, \u201cIt\u2019s because we all work so much. I meet many Austin chefs at out-of-city festivals.\u201d<\/p>\n Somehow, that led to a sidebar conversation about Oak Cliff \u2014 where Somsith grew up, and my dad taught public school \u2014 and how much he loves living in Austin. The cheekily named Lao\u2019d Bar<\/a> served a memorable ribeye steak skewer that hit smoky, sour, salty, spicy, and herbal notes all at once. They also won the top prize that day. Congrats, Bob! Other great dishes that day included the Trill Burger, which indeed lives up to the hype, Dayne\u2019s Craft Barbecue\u2019s steak frites, and Hao Tran\u2019s dutifully traditional Hanoi-style grilled pork with vermicelli noodles.<\/p>\n The Main Event was equally memorable the day before. Many of Fort Worth\u2019s most notable chefs \u2014 Jon Bonnell, Antonio Votta, Jenna Kinard, Juan Rodriguez, and Marcus Paslay \u2014 were helming tables and greeting guests. B&B Butchers & Restaurant brought in a stalwart, smoked bacon with blue cheese and honey, while Rodriguez\u2019s slow-roasted pork with arroz and pickled slaw spanned savory to tangy.<\/p>\n Madrone\u2019s notably long line boded well for Jenna Kinard\u2019s forthcoming restaurant within The Public Market<\/a>. One week after his first wine pairing dinner at Duchess<\/a>, we caught Chef Marcus Kopplin serving a delightful duck confit with mole negro, lime creme, and cilantro. Voters had the final word that day, and Antonio Votta, Executive Chef at Bricks and Horses, snagged the best dish award that evening.<\/p>\n We ended the experience at the rooftop bar at Press Cafe for the VIP party, where we chatted with Chef Michael Arlt of The Mont and then Dayne and Ashley Weaver, whose reach recently leaped from local to international with their first barbecue restaurant<\/a> in Taiwan. We missed Thursday and Sunday, but those days saw Lucky G\u2019s Bistro and Lil\u2019 Boy Blue BBQ take the top prize, respectively.<\/p>\n Well done, Fort Worth Food + Wine Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival started with a minor scuffle over strategy. My friend suggested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-253995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Live music was part of the draw to the 2026 Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival. (Photo by Nancy Farrar)<\/p>\n<\/a>Festivalgoers were in high spirits through the two days this food writer visited the Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival. (Photo by Nancy Farrar)
\nThe Main Event<\/p>\n<\/a>The 2026 Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival featured Fort Worth\u2019s best cocktails and small plates. (Photo by Nancy Farrar)<\/p>\n