Fried Chicken News

Fort Worth's chicken craze finds solace at new tenders restaurant

The fried chicken zombies have a new destination.

Photo courtesy of Cookshack

The latest hot chicken experience has arrived: The Cookshack, a new fast-casual restaurant at 500 University Dr., has opened with chicken tenders, chicken & waffles, and the currently sizzling chicken sandwich.

The restaurant is located in a space that has a history with chicken, as the former home to Lisa's Fried Chicken, which closed in 2018.

The restaurant claims to offer "Texas-style" hot chicken — is that really a thing? — which you can get it in a variety of heat levels. A basic order is $7 for 2 tenders, choice of side, and a slice of bread.

They do a dry rub and then you get your choice from six sauces that include ranch, sweet heat, BBQ, buffalo, and Cookshack sauce, IE thousand island.

Sides include mac & cheese, coleslaw, French fries, sweet potato fries, spicy "Dragon" French fries and "Texas caviar," aka black-eyed pea salad with corn, tomato, and bell pepper.

In addition to fried chicken, they serve smoked ribs, which you can get solo or in a chicken-rib combo. Three salads include one with chicken, avocado, dates, almonds, goat cheese, tomatoes, and corn; and a chicken kale salad with peanuts, tomatoes, cabbage, mint, cilantro, and parmesan cheese. Sounds good.

They do one great-looking dessert called Aunt Peggy's ice cream sandwich, which is one of those super-thick ice cream sandwiches made with oatmeal cookies and vanilla ice cream.

They also serve fresh lemonade, beer, wine, and margaritas, either frozen, on the rocks, or swirls.

According to a spokesperson for the restaurant, Cookshack is a concept from two veterans of Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen: Mark Rogers, who is also the son of Cheddar's founder, and Stephen Payne. Cookshack being a "concept" means that more locations are in the works.

With all of the hubbub over the recent introduction — and ensuing shortage — of a chicken sandwich by Popeye's, their opening seems ideally timed.

"We had no idea, but yeah, the timing worked out," the spokesperson says.

openings

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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