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Eat their words: we wanted to know Texas dining would look like in the few years, so we asked the biggest names in food--the state's leading chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors, and then like--to tell us what we'll be having for dinner.

Article Excerpt
IN A HIGHLY UNSCIENTIFIC SURVEY, WE SENT A TWENTY-ITEM QUESTIONNAIRE to some 75 chefs and other movers and shakers in the Texas food world to ask what dining will be like as the twenty-first century unfolds. More than 50 responded, and here's a smattering of what they said. Beef, both fatty and lean, isn't going away anytime soon. Raw fish--and not just sushi and ceviche--is coming on strong. And brush up on your Spanish, because quinoa ("keen-wah," a nutty South American grain) will be on our plates alongside wheat, rice, and barley. Texas's up-and-coming cuisine will be Indian, and our trendiest restaurants will be found in Dallas. Don't bother to dress up for dinner, because formal dining is as dead as a dodo. So is "the crazy stuff" of over elaborate menus driven by chefs' over inflated egos. Independent operations are not endangered--yet. If there is one single thing, however, that will transform restaurants, it is the state's growing Hispanic population; Latino cooks will emerge from behind the scenes to become stars in their own right. And what will chefs need to cope with all this future shock? Same as they've always needed since the first caveman laid a haunch of woolly mammoth over a bed of smoldering coals: passion and a good palate.

SECTION 1 FILL IN THE BLANK

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1 The trendiest vegetable or grain in the next two years will be --?

Quinoa 15% Black vegetables and grains 11% Dark leafy greens 19% Local and seasonal produce 9% Different kinds of rice 7% Exotic potatoes 4% Salsify 4% Other 41%

Answers included purple corn, fregola (a Sardinian pasta), crosnes (a type of Asian tuber also called knotroot and chorogi), cardoons (a celery like plant related to artichokes), seaweed, and "What's left?"

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2 In two years, the next big protein will be --?

Beef, especially grass-fed and the Akaushi breed 36% Fish, including Kona Kampachi, the brand name of a type of yellowtail farmed off the coast of Hawaii 18% Buffalo 8% Unusual poultry, including guinea hen and non-cage-raised chickens 8% Pork 8% Lamb 6% Other 16%

Answers included tofu, goat, rabbit, shrimp, and organ meats.

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3 The hottest Texas chef of 2010 will be --?

We don't know yet...

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