"I surrender. Monica Pope is a genius. And her new restaurant, T'afia on Travis Street, is flat-out brilliant." ...it takes just one exquisite bite to see what Pope is up to. Every course of the tasting menu dinner features a Texas artisanal food product. While Pope is bowling you over with her dreamy flavor combinations, she's also single-handedly creating a market for organic farmers, small cheese makers, specialty ranchers and local chocolate makers."

Robb Walsh, The Houston Press, March 2004
CHEF MONICA POPE
• James Beard Award Nominee, Best Chef/Southwest, 2007
• The only Texas woman chef to be named a Top 10 Best New Chef by Food & Wine Magazine, 1996
t'afia
Featured on 7 different Best New Restaurant lists, including:
The Hot 50 - Where to Eat Now, Bon Appetit Magazine, 03/05 and
Where to Eat Now in 30 American Cities, Gourmet Magazine, 10/04
“As a chef, I have spent the last 13 years cooking in one place – Houston, Texas. My cooking style has developed organically from certain fundamental truths: first, what grows together goes together, and, second, that food simply tastes better when you eat where your food lives.

Cooking this way is not a new concept – but cooking this way in today’s Houston, Texas is revolutionary. It is ironic that, as a chef, I have spent my career cooking with as many local and organic ingredients as I can find in a place that is called the Chemical Coast. Houston, Texas is, in reality, a place of oxymorons: it is all at the same time a concrete jungle, a refinery coast and an air-conditioned oasis. For over ten years, I have supported local farmers, ranchers and food producers, and also helped found the Midtown Farmers Market; ultimately, their efforts form the heart and soul of my current restaurant, t’afia. (see box below).

One of the mantras at t’afia is “season and place.” Season. Not only does every recipe start with “Place ingredients in a bowl (or pan),” and end with “Season to taste,” but I now cook only with what the season gives. Place. I cook literally from the source, this place, Texas. The ingredients for my simple, seasonal food have been planted, harvested, foraged and discovered by local farmers, growers, ranchers, customers and artisans – and through my relationship with them and their offerings, they all have influenced my cooking style.

Our reputation as Texans is larger-than-life: rodeos, bbq, friendly folks, big hunks of steak on a grill, mountains of food at every meal. Yet, at t’afia, diners enjoy an entirely different kind of Houston dining experience – a true expression of Texas Terroir, a full experience of this place at the table through food that comes directly from the urban gardens, family farms, small ranches and small-batch kitchens within 200-300 miles of the city. A prominent feature of t’afia’s menu is the five-course Local Market Tasting Menu. This menu changes every week to highlight the produce from the Midtown Farmers Market as well as from producers across the state. Past tasting menus have featured items such as: Pure Luck Hopelessly Bleu Goat Cheese with Joan’s figs, poached in Texas Hills Merlot; Tempura of Gita’s Squash Blossoms with Saffron-Sherry Aioli; Lola’s Shell Beans & Farro with Texas Tarragon; Maverick Farms Antelope Cutlet, Chicken-Fried, with Whole Roasted Okra & Wild Mustang Grape Jelly; and Summer Pudding with Local Blueberries.

I have been called “the Alice Waters of the Third Coast,” but I am not her. I am really the next generation of chefs who have come up under her influence. I am a present-day intrepid Texas Culinary Pioneer, working with local farmers and producers against all the odds and often in hostile territory. In starting t’afia, I chose a difficult path: I returned home to a place of seasonal extremes, imbalances of supply and demand and a community that is only now just beginning to recognize the importance of being connected to their food sources.

Cooking with and eating local produce connects people to their food sources, giving them a true taste of where they live. Here in Houston, we have a unique, year-round growing season that offers us an incredible bounty of produce from persimmon to meyer lemons to asian greens. The season for each of the many fruits and vegetables is either breathlessly short or interminably long – either way, we have to take advantage of the seasons when they hit and make the most of what nature gives us.

I am proud to be a part of the food revolution that is growing rapidly in this country: each small step taken towards cooking with local, fresh ingredients is a small step towards a better environment, a more conscious, happy, healthy society and a sustainable life.”
Chef Pope is currently working on her first book titled:
Eating Hope:  Caution, Chef May Be Starving
* t’afia comes from the French-Creole word, ratafia -- a fortified wine infused with seasonal produce that so perfectly captures a moment in time, a season at its ripeness, a mouth full of memories. We make our ratafias with local, organic produce, locally-made white or red wine, Tito’s vodka (made in Austin), organic vanilla beans and organic Wholesome Sweeteners sugar (from Sugarland). A ratafia is a perfect way to start your evening, raise your glass and toast, “t’afia!” (which also means, “To your health” and “The deal is done.”)

BIOGRAPHY
t’afia, has received local and national accolades and has been featured in:

• Best Sommelier, Houston Press, 2007

• Most Creative Chef, O Magazine, 2007
• Best Service, The Houston Press, 2006
• Best Restaurant, Houston Press, 9/05 (link)
• Best New Restaurant, Houston Business Journal, 2005
• The Hot 50 - Where to Eat Now, Bon Appetit Magazine, 03/05
• Top 10 Where to Eat Now, Texas Monthly Magazine 02/05
• Texas Top Chefs (featured), Texas Highways Magazine, 01/05
• Top 40 Best New American Restaurants, Travel & Leisure Magazine, 12/04
• The Best American Green Cuisine, 20 Fresh Places to Eat, Organic Style Magazine, 10/04
• Where to Eat Now in 30 American Cities, Gourmet Magazine, 10/04
• Kitchen Goddesses, Fortune Small Business Magazine, 10/04
• Best New Restaurant, Houston Press 9/04
• "Culinary Catalyst" Houston Chronicle Ultimate Guide to Houston, Houston Chronicle, 9/04
Monica was also named a Top 10 Best New Chef by Food & Wine Magazine (1996).

Monica wasn't born in Texas but she got here as soon as she could!

Inspired to bake and cook by her Czech grandmother, Monica knew that after she received her Bachelor’s Degree with a major in English that she would cook in restaurants and eventually open her own.

She began her career at the age of eighteen for Cafe Annie in Houston. She later left Houston for Europe where she spent the next three years working in restaurants in Greece and London. In 1990, she earned her Chef's title from Prue Leith's School of Food & Wine. She returned to the United States, working first in several innovative San Francisco restaurants, (Bix, Eddie Jacks) then coming back to Houston to work in Marion Tindall's Bistro Cuisine and Tony Vallone's La Griglia. In 1992, Monica opened The Quilted Toque, where she made an impact on the Houston food scene.
[Her] dedication to pure flavors distinguishes Pope's food from much of the razzmatazz cooking available in Houston... John Mariani, The Wine Spectator, 1994
She opened her second restaurant, Boulevard Bistrot in 1994 where she was named one of Food & Wine Magazine's Top 10 Best New Chefs.
...one of the most ingenious restaurateurs around. Travel & Leisure Magazine, 1996.
After 10 years at her Museum District institution, Boulevard Bistrot, the restaurant’s lease was up; Monica decided to break out of the bistro box and create a new concept in an up-and-coming part of Houston, South Midtown. Inspired by the location--an industrial red-brick building on 10,000 square feet of land--Monica has again envisioned and made real an incredible place with simple, good food using as many local and regional ingredients as possible.
"No Texas restaurant is more passionately local than chef Monica Pope's new venture, t'afia even the dining room boasts murals and sleek acrylic tabletops made by Houston artists."
Gourmet Magazine, October 2004
"Don't be fooled by t'afia's bare brick walls and plain white tables. Tucked on a side street in a still edgy part of midtown Houston, Monica Pope's small eight-month-old restaurant is a hot destination for Texans serious about food." Organic Style Magazine, October 2004
Monica is a leader in the garden-to-table movement among American chefs and is an original charter member, as well as a Board Member (2005) of Chefs Collaborative, an organization of over 1000 chefs across the country whose work addresses the concerns and philosophy of clean food sources, seasonal food preparation and healthy food choices. She is a champion of sustainability in local agriculture, product purchasing and restaurant recycling of glass, plastic, aluminum and steel as well as kitchen waste through composting.

Monica is one of the founders of the Midtown Farmers Market a weekly market located at t’afia, that brings the community together on the cornerstone of food with offerings from local farmers, craftspeople, and chefs making artisanal, handcrafted breads, chocolates, pastries and prepared foods.