< PreviousExquisite Homes Laffite’s Cove, Galveston TX 3425 Petite Circle | $3,850,000 3502 Muscatee | $3,700,000 3235 Lafittes Point | $2,000,000 3663 Foremast | $1,154,000 For Sale For Sale For Sale For Sale 281.773.3477 bjennings@greenwoodking.com Chase Jennings, Associate chasejennings@greenwoodking.com BET JENNINGS 2022 Real Trends America’s Best Real Estate Pros in Galveston & Texas Specializing in the Pirates communities: Laffite’s Cove, Pirates Cove, Pirates Beach & Pirates Beach West A long-time resident of Laffite’s Cove Director of Laffite’s Cove Board Pirates POA & UTMB Development Board32 COASTMONTHLY.COM | SepTeMber 2023 Charmaine Tungol, executive chef at the Hilton Galveston Island Resort, is looking forward to creative freedom as she helps the resort revamp its restaurant and menu. COASTMONTHLY.COM | SepTeMber 2023 33 FEATURE ‘I’VE WORKED FOR THIS’ Philippine-born Hilton chef embraces local flavors and island lifestyle story by JOSÉ MENDIOLA | photo by JENNIFER REYNOLDS C hef Charmaine Tungol’s earliest memories are being awakened by her father at 5 a.m. every day to look at fresh fish at local wet markets. The Philippine-born chef moved to Hawaii in 2003, but after the stock market crash of 2008, she headed to Las Vegas, where she worked in kitchens at ARIA Resort & Casino and the Wynn Las Vegas. The Le Cordon Bleu graduate now is the executive chef at the Hilton Galveston Island Resort. What inspired you to become a chef? I’m not sure if it’s interesting, but to me it was life-changing. My dad would wake me up at 5 a.m. during weekends to look at wet markets. I just didn’t get it at the time. We used to look at fresh vegetables and fresh fish. It was a haven for a foodie. Be- fore he died, he told me I should have my own restaurant. I was only a cook at the time. Going to those markets with him was an enlightenment. Be- cause of him, every time I see a good product, I know how to appreciate it. What’s your favorite type of dish? I love, love, love Spanish food. Like Barcelona tapas or paella. That’s always been my favorite type of food. That’s always been a solid foundation for me. I’ve learned a lot about Span- ish food. I was taught by Chef Julian Serrano who owns Picasso, which is a 2 Michelin-star restaurant in the Bellagio. How did you get to Galveston from Las Vegas? My husband is from Texas and my in-laws live in Galveston. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we flew here because everything in Vegas was closed. We went fishing and my family was catching thousands of fish. My kids loved it. We noticed the lifestyle here and said: “You know what? We should just move here.” I told my husband if you can buy a big piece of land near Galveston, I’ll move there. And he did. What lessons have you learned while working in the industry? I’ve learned that it’s important to build good relationships or camara- derie with the people you work with in the kitchen. I think it’s important to have a good relationship with young cooks. They don’t have the passion anymore for food. I ask young cooks where they see themselves in the future. Because I feel like if you don’t love food that much, this career is not for you. It’s something you devote yourself to. You don’t just wake up and say “I love to cook.” It’s some- thing you have to work for. I’m proud to say I’ve worked for this. That’s how I got here. How do you incorporate local flavors and ingredients into your dishes? I’m pretty adaptive. I used to work in seafood in the Wynn Las Vegas. Our fish in Las Vegas was flown daily from Hawaii. Now that I’m working here, the water is right in front of me. Local seafood is my focus right now. Right now, we’re revamping the restaurant to focus on seafood. I’ve been dreaming about having super fresh fish and butchering it in front of me that same day. Gulf shrimp is sweet and I love the taste. I’ve already incorporated Gulf shrimp in three of my dishes on my menu right now. Shrimp is about $4 a pound here, back in Vegas it was like $7. I’m bless- ed to be here. What keeps you motivated? It’s the freedom of creativity. I appreciate working here in Hilton because they’ve given me the freedom of making a menu for events. I’ve even recreated the Choco Taco that Klondike used to sell. It’s the best dessert ice cream ever. When they stopped making it, I was like “Why?” So I recreated it and it’s super fun and really cool. There are good days and bad days in all lines of work. But for me, if I get to be creative and push out whatever I want, it’s the best. There are days where I wake up in the middle of the night and write down food ideas in my head. I feel like it’s the best thing in the world. 36 COASTMONTHLY.COM | SepTeMber 2023 FEATURE JOIN THE CLUB Food enthusiasts connect over conversations and carefully thought-out meals story by SHANNON CALDWELL S upper clubs are popular across the upper Texas coast and local chefs have perfected the recipe for success — add delicious food, a favorite tipple and a room of strangers. Mari- nate in fascinating conversation and enjoy. Each supper club offers something differ- ent, whether it be uncovering a community’s culinary history, discovering new flavors or just hanging out with friends and neighbors. Galveston’s Fish Company Taco Chef Daya Myers-Hurt started the Oleander Supper Club four years ago as a way to investigate island history through food and create memorable evenings for guests, she said. Held the second and third Monday of each month at the 1914 23rd St. restaurant, the supper club has a dif- ferent theme for each multi-course meal and is so popular there’s often a waiting list. COASTMONTHLY.COM | SepTeMber 2023 37 p HOTOS: J e NNIF er re YNOLDS Guests enjoy the casual atmosphere of the Fish Company Taco patio during Chef Daya Myers-Hurt’s Oleander Supper Club. (Opposite) A guest prepares to take a bite of a masa waffle with chorizo and slaw.38 COASTMONTHLY.COM | SepTeMber 2023 FEATURE “The theme is always a surprise,” Myers- Hurt said. “On the Sunday before, I go to the farmers market for ingredients. I’m a lazy chef and I want the best ingredients, so they do most of the work and I don’t have to do too much to them.” Myers-Hurt, a self-described “giant nerd” who reads menus for leisure, puts extensive research into each supper club. “For one, I created a historically accurate menu of what the Karankawa Indians would have eaten,” she said. “For one course, we have fried sand trout with Spanish moss chips that were rinsed, pickled and then freeze-dried. Another time, I made chick- en-fried duck that was so delicious it is now my new death-row meal.” Other sources of inspiration include histor- ic menus from luxury liners, inventories from sailing ships, descriptions of fancy meals in Victorian households and old spiral-bound cookbooks created by churches and charities for fundraising. “One year, we were going to Austin City Limits and I saw a banner that said; ‘How to Cook a Possum, Austin Cuisine at the Turn of the Century.’ I missed the first three acts of ACL because I spent hours reading all the menus and exhibit notes and taking my own photographs and notes.” Each Oleander Supper Club includes six tables of people who are welcome to bring their own beverages. FANCY THAT EATcetera’s Fancy Jackson Supper Club offers seasonal flavors over a multi-course menu in a fine-dining environment. “We completely transform the restaurant with white linens, quality silverware and artworks appropriate to the theme or by the young artists we support with our art fellow- ship program,” EATcetera restaurant co-own- er and baker Victoria Newsome said. EATcetera, 408 25th St. in downtown Galveston, launched its Fancy Jackson Sup- per Club last year and has held a seasonal dinner each quarter. At least half of the people who attend one seasonal dinner have returned for anoth- er and in coming months Newsome and Executive Chef Lena Pyles plan to have more regular events. “People come back for Chef Lena’s in- credible food,” Newsome said. “For a spring seasonal dinner, we had an all-vegan menu. Of the 28 people at the dinner, 14 had never eaten vegan food before and they loved it so much they’ve returned to order vegan meals at our regular lunch service.” Pyles had a storied career at restaurants in Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston and is known for Asian-fusion and Tex Mex flavors made to order from local, often organic, produce. Fancy Jackson Supper Club is multi-faceted. Along with seasonal dinners, it includes the option for people to book their own private supper club, and in the future, cooking classes will be offered pHOTOS: JeNNIFer reYNOLDS (Above) Chef Daya Myers-Hurt, owner of Fish Company Taco in Galveston, talks to guests during her Oleander Supper Club. (Opposite) Myers-Hurt created corn ravioli with a roselle chutney for one of the courses. COASTMONTHLY.COM | SepTeMber 2023 39 under the Fancy Jackson banner. BAPTISM BY FOOD Relatively new to the island communal food scene is Gastrochurch, where people attend for good food and intentional spiritual conversations. The Houston-based concept was created by United Methodist pastor Mer- edith Wende Mills and Haley Brown of the church’s youth ministry in 2021. Two years ago, they started holding events in Galveston in conjunction with Central United Meth- odist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County. “We serve really great food, family-style over a two-hour evening of slow eating with intentional conversations,” Brown said. “People can bring their own beverages and we always have a theme for the conversa- tion and the food. One time, the theme was baptism and so the food was all water-based, including gazpacho and lettuce wraps.” While there is a spiritual element to each dinner, all are welcome at the table. “We have church in the name, and we wouldn’t want to bamboozle anyone,” Brown said. “We do present a Chris- tian-world view, but over the years we’ve had people from across the religious spec- trum come to Gastrochurch. There’s been Jews and Muslims as well as atheists and surprisingly the only complaints I’ve had are from people who are super Christian.” Food long has been a way to bring people together and Gastrochurch events see rich and poor, conservatives and liberals sitting down together to share food and ideas in a special environment, she said. Interested people can find the group on social media and the Eventbrite website. SHARING THE LOVE Chef Catherine Lynn Scott started El Lago Ladies Dinner Group a year ago with an invitation to 12 of her neighbors. The group meets each month at mom-and-pop restau- rants no more than 20 minutes’ drive from the El Lago neighborhood and with at least one $20 entrée on the menu. It has grown to include more than 140 members. “We don’t go to any chain restaurants because, as a chef, I wanted to support small, chef-owned businesses,” Scott said. “It has been a wonderful way to bring people together. Our youngest member is 27 and our oldest is in her mid-80s.” Lynn Scott has worked in upscale restau- rants all over the United States and as a private chef in Minneapolis. But she has learned the most from the home cooks in her life, she said. “I’m from Cicero in Chicago and every summer my extended family would come together for Sausage Sundays,” she said. “All the kids would be in the basement and the men would be outside smoking cigars. I would watch my aunts in the kitchen making incredible meals from scratch. I’ve worked in some of the fanciest restaurants, but none have had it as together as my aunts.” Her International Studies program at University of Texas at Austin inspired a trip to Cuba where she fell in love with local cuisine and her future husband, she said.Next >