Alison Cook

1 week ago | alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io | Alison Cook

The sight of EaDo pizza joint Tiny Champions' spring onions pizza on Instagram last week triggered my Think-and-Do impulse. It boasted seven (!) kinds of alliums, the bulbous-rooted flowering plants that include onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives and beyond. So it had my name on it. I never met an allium that I didn't like. Essentially this is a white pizza with a base layer of red onions braised in butter, then pureed with crème fraîche and lemon. Yum, right?

1 week ago | alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io | Alison Cook

When I saw that Októ was serving a Burger à Poivre on its new Sunday brunch menu, I had to have it. Anything à poivre or au poivre—the French cookery classic involving peppercorns of various stripes and a buttery cognac sauce— gets my attention, whether it's a steak version at Bar Bludorn or the swordfish at Navy Blue. But what I found at Októ, the 7-month old Montrose Mediterranean restaurant from Sof Hospitality (the Doris Metropolitan brain trust), confounded my expectations.

1 month ago | houstonchronicle.com | Alison Cook

Plenty of options for Italian food exist in Houston, whether you're seeking out hearty red-sauce lasagna or bowls of trendy pastas like cacio e pepe,. The Chronicle's food team has twirled enough spaghetti on forks and shared enough bites of tiramisu to narrow down the list to 16 outstanding restaurants, listed here in alphabetical order. As always, let us know what we missed.

Jan 20, 2025 | houstonchronicle.com | Jody Schmal |Bao Ong |Sonia Garcia |Alison Cook

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Nov 27, 2024 | houstonchronicle.com | Alison Cook

Caricature of Alison CookKen Ellis/StaffRarely in my writing life have I had no idea what to say. Yet today is one of those occasions. How do you sum up what it means to leave a job you have held for 22 years, a job you (almost always) loved, a job that kept you perpetually interested and engaged with your city? My tenure as the Houston Chronicle’s restaurant critic has been all those things, and more.