Chef News

Southern restaurant from Dallas Cowboys chef debuts near Arlington stadium

They'll be doing Southern, Cajun, and low-country cuisine.

Photo courtesy of Ella B's

A prime location in Arlington across the street from AT&T Stadium will soon be home to Ella B's, a new restaurant featuring Southern and Cajun food from a former Dallas Cowboys chef.

Ella B's is a mom-and-pop venture from Patricia and Patrick Whitfield, and will occupy a space at 1004 N. Collins St. that's kitty-corner to the stadium. They plan to open in April.

The couple has a catering business called The Covenant Catering Service, which they founded 12 years ago. Since the coronavirus, they've arrived at an unusual niche.

"We've been very busy providing food to clubs during COVID-19," Patricia says. "When clubs were not allowed to open unless they were serving food, we would go in and take over the kitchen and be their food service component. We still do that, but we were ready for our own place. This was a goal we've had from the beginning — to have our own restaurant."

They found the ideal location when the owner of 1010 Collins, an event space and wedding venue, approached them about taking over an adjoining space.

The menu and the restaurant name are inspired by Patrick's grandmother, Ella B. Whitfield, with whom he spent many days in the kitchen as a child. They'll do Cajun and low country Southern food, with a dash or two of Jamaican and Nigerian cuisine.

"We have a diverse audience and we also like all kinds of food," Patricia says.

The restaurant will have a full bar with mixologist-crafted cocktails, and given their proximity to the stadium, they're creating some game-oriented specials.

"We definitely want to offer tailgater packages and host tailgating events as well," she says.

In addition to cooking for Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys for two years, Patrick has been a private chef to celebrities. He's also developed a line of barbecue sauces and spices.

"In his career, Patrick has covered a wide spectrum of cuisines, from Southern to African to high end, and we'd like the restaurant to reflect that, with things like a special chef feature every Friday," Patricia says.

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Chef News

Fort Worth's Will Rogers Memorial Center welcomes bright new chef

FortWorthtx.gov

Will Rogers Memorial Center

There's a new chef in town: Waylon Cornelius, named executive chef of catering and concessions for Craft Culinary Concepts, the food and beverage provider at Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Will Rogers Memorial Center is the 120-acre entertainment complex anchoring Fort Worth’s Cultural District, owned and operated by the City of Fort Worth. Cornelius will oversee menus for trade shows and other events at the center which bring in more than 2 million visitors a year.

Craft Culinary Concepts is headquartered in Glendale, Arizona, and manages food and beverage programs for entertainment, sports and cultural facilities.

Chef Waylon Corneliusfortworthtx.gov

According to a release, Cornelius joined the team this summer and is already shifting the expectations of guests from a typical “BBQ and beans” menu to a bill of fare satisfying every kind of palate.

“We always have fajitas ready to go, but we also make a beautiful Beef Wellington or baked salmon with a pink salt crust,” Cornelius says in a statement.

For consumer trade shows, Craft and its partners Caribou and Taco Heads offer more choices for the thousands of guests who attend events at WRMC annually.

“Some of our equestrian guests are away from home and here for several days, and they need more than popcorn and hot dogs,” Cornelius says. “Our concessions offer biscuits and gravy, burritos made in-house, strawberry salad, fruit and yogurt cups.”

A native of Mansfield, Cornelius grew up helping in a farm-to-table kitchen. He was raised on a farm with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather -- a Vietnam veteran who enjoyed vegetable gardens and raising hogs and chickens. He studied computer science after high school and holds an associate's degree in Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis from Tarrant County College.

He's a 2003 graduate of AIMS Academy of Culinary Arts in Dallas where he was mentored by a number of great chefs. While training as assistant executive sous chef at the AAA four-diamond Grand Hyatt DFW, he worked with Executive Chef Sutti Sripolpa, chef Eric Dreyer (who went on to be Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef), and Chef Jean-Claude Plihon, under whom he honed his French cooking skills.

As executive sous chef at the opening of Perry’s Steakhouse and Grille in Southlake, Cornelius gained expertise with volume. While at HG Sply Co., he learned about gluten-free items and other food allergies.

HG Sply is also where he crossed paths with Chef James R. Schell III, Craft’s general manager at WRMC, who recruited Cornelius to the complex.

"James said he needed someone who can hit moving targets, push the culinary team to be more avant-garde and use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, so here I am," Cornelius says. "Culinary is a small world."

“I want people to say, ‘When we were in Fort Worth, you won’t believe what we got at Will Rogers!’” Schell says. “Even the celebrities who perform [in the auditorium] are surprised. When Chicago played here recently and we served dinner backstage, they said they felt treated like the Rolling Stones.”

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