Dawn Burrell Partners with Local Chefs, Artists for Immersive Dining Experience

Global Chef Returns to the Houston Food Scene with Inspiration for New “Sound and Color” Series with first dinner, June 29, 2024

James Beard Award Semifinalist and Top Chef alumna Chef Dawn Burrell is kicking off her return to the Houston food scene with “Sound and Color,” an immersive dining experience for the senses. Chef Dawn will collaborate with local chefs of varying cultures, as well as musicial and mixed media artists. The location of the dinners will change based on the theme of the experience. The locations of each intimate dinner will be revealed only to those who purchase tickets, with limited spots available for each event. 

Sound and Color is a recurring event, with the first dinner held at 6pm on June 29 with Chef Dominick Lee of soon-to-open Progressive Creole restaurant, Augustine’s. 

Chef Lee’s roots are in New Orleans, but he honed his culinary skills in Houston at Bay Oaks Country Club, Kiran’s, and the late Poitín Bar & Kitchen. He went on to expand his knowledge of Creole cuisine by studying its European roots, working across Southern Italy, France, and the Basque Region. Most recently, he opened New American bar, Alligator Pear in New York City before returning back to Houston.

It is very fitting to begin this series with Dominick. We have been friends and collaborators for a very long time. It’s always a great time cooking alongside Chef Dom. He is my family. Chef Burrell said. “Our recent culinary experiences will make for a memorable first ‘Sound and Color’ dinner.”

On July 12, Burrell will be joined by Chef Tristan Epp of Epp and Flow. Among Chef Epp’s numerous accolades is receiving a James Beard semi-finalist nomination in 2024 for Best Chef South. Equal Parts Brewing, a local brewery in Houston’s Second Ward that recently partnered with Burrell to develop “Shared Strength”, a charitable lager supporting mental health, will co-host “Sound and Color” on July 26. Future dates and guest chefs will be announced at a later date. 

This dinner series evokes a sense of rebirth for Chef Dawn Burrell as she reemerges into the Houston restaurant scene following a 5-month appointment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia opening acclaimed chef Marcus Samuelsson’s namesake restaurant, Marcus Addis, and joining him on a Culinary Diplomacy trip with the James Beard Foundation in France earlier this year. 

Burrell named the dinner experience after the Alabama Shakes song, “Sound and Color.” The first three lines especially resonated with her: 

“A new world hangs outside my window beautiful and strange. It must be, I’ve fallen awake. I must be sound and color, with me for my mind, and the ship shows me to go where I needn’t speak. Not far now.”  

“I chose the name ‘Sound and Color’ for several reasons—it’s a continuum linking the past and present through food culture, art, and music,” Burrell says. “To me, the lyrics symbolize new beginnings beckoning the future, whatever it may, while fighting the natural fear of the unknown.”

Following the July dinners, Burrell plans to collaborate with multidisciplinary artist, Robert Leroy Hodge who has exhibited his work in numerous national and international institutions including The Station Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Contemporary Arts Museum, along with Indian-born and raised contemporary artist Janavi Folmsbee, a Marine Conservation Artist and creator of the vibrant and multi-sensory Water Wisps, Sanctuary Bubbles and Aquarius Art Tunnel at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, to continue the celebration of arts: culinary, musical and beyond. 

To book your seat, visit https://dawn-burrell-sound.square.site/.

Featured photo: Joseph Boudreaux