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While the Michelin Guide is intended to show travelers where to eat the best food in Texas, at least three standout chefs aren’t eligible for inclusion in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Manny Rodriguez\/Special Contributor<\/p>\n
Many fine-dining chefs who have been cooking in Dallas for decades waited years<\/a>\u00a0for the Michelin Guide to arrive in Texas. Once it did, in 2024<\/a>, some of them didn\u2019t have restaurants in North Texas for Michelin\u2019s anonymous inspectors to visit.<\/p>\n How unjust, to wait so long and then miss out.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most difficult, to me, was watching accolades roll in for excellent Dallas restaurants and seeing no mention of Stephan Pyles\u2019 name associated with any of them. Pyles owned restaurants in Dallas for nearly 40 years and helped define the Modern Texas culinary movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n For decades, we considered his restaurants among Dallas\u2019 best: There was Routh Street Cafe, Star Canyon, Stephan Pyles, Flora Street Cafe and more.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Pyles said in a Dallas Morning News interview when Michelin\u2019s first Texas Guide was announced: “I knew it was just a matter of time before it made it to Texas.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n “I just hoped it had gotten here three to four years earlier,\u201d Pyles said in 2024, then semiretired.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chef Stephan Pyles is pictured in\u00a0Flora Street Cafe, his last full-time fine-dining kitchen before he moved into restaurant consulting roles.<\/p>\n Ashley Landis\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n He spent years at the top of his game, then didn\u2019t get a chance to cook for Michelin\u2019s anonymous inspectors at the end of his career.\u00a0Pyles closed fine-dining restaurant Flora Street Cafe in January 2020<\/a>. Timing was bad for a potential Michelin accolade, but it was good otherwise: The restaurant industry nearly collapsed under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>, and fine-dining restaurants were hit especially hard.\u00a0Pyles unknowingly saved himself a lot of heartache.<\/p>\n In 2026, the third annual Michelin Guide in Texas will be announced Oct. 8<\/a>. I predict three Dallas restaurants could win Michelin stars<\/a> for the first time and four others might snag their first Bib Gourmand<\/a>, the award for reasonably priced food.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Another star chef whose restaurant won\u2019t be part of the 2026 Guide is\u00a0Dallas\u2019\u00a0Matt McCallister, as he\u2019s in the process of opening 22-seat tasting restaurant River Sing in Expo Park<\/a>. It won’t be open before the Guide is announced.<\/p>\n McCallister\u2019s food at erstwhile restaurants FT33, Filament and Homewood would be impressive enough to send Michelin judges his way. Another reason I\u2019d like to see his food considered in the future is McCallister is a Pyles prot\u00e9g\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chef Matt McCallister plans to open River Sing in Dallas in late 2026.<\/p>\n Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n If\u00a0Pyles isn\u2019t running Michelin-quality restaurants in Dallas anymore, perhaps his next generation of students can.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also waiting to see if chef Junior Borges will return to Dallas kitchens. Influenced by chefs Missy Robbins and Tom Colicchio,\u00a0Borges then moved to Dallas to work at Uchi, the most significant new restaurant in the region<\/a> when it opened in 2015.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Borges cooked in revered restaurants like FT33 and Mirador before opening Meridian, the restaurant in The Village that once carried his signature style: a mix of Brazilian and American food that had never been done in Dallas before<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Junior Borges moved to Dallas over a decade ago, first to work at Uchi.<\/p>\n Rose Baca\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n That still leaves Dallas without Borges\u2019 food. He formerly worked with Excelsior Hospitality<\/a>, a Texas company that has restaurants in Austin, Oklahoma City and Chicago. While Borges\u2019 name is still on Chicago restaurant Nic + Junior\u2019s, he\u2019s not actively involved, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Borges still lives in North Texas. Is he working on a restaurant in Dallas next?\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt will happen,\u201d Borges said. No timeline or other details were available yet.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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