Chef Julian Rodarte has accomplished more in his first 12 years in the restaurant industry than many do over their entire careers. He graduated with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, and almost immediately began training under celebrity chef and Dallas legend Dean Fearing at his restaurant, Fearing’s, inside The Ritz-Carlton Dallas. Two years later, at 23 years old, Rodarte co-founded the still-thriving Mexican restaurant, Beto & Son at Trinity Groves, with his chef father, Beto Rodarte.
Now 33, Rodarte has numerous restaurant concepts under his belt and has served in executive chef, consultant, and CEO roles for other companies. Last year, he joined the Dee Lincoln Prime team as Culinary Director, working closely with restaurant industry legend Dee Lincoln to deliver an unparalleled culinary experience to loyal guests, characterized by exemplary service.
“It was really interesting when we first started talking about me joining the team, because I was like, man, this is such an amazing operation. Everything runs so smoothly and at such a high level. I said, ‘Dee, what do you need a chef for? I’ll just be honest. I don’t think you need one,’” Rodarte says.
Over the course of about a month of meetings and “performing due diligence on each other,” Rodarte decided that he always has room to grow as a chef, always looking to elevate and enhance. At first, he says Lincoln didn’t want to change much of the menu.
“The longer that I’ve been here, the more she’s asked me to change things just because she likes my vision for the menu from a culinary standpoint, as well as the guest experience. So it’s been small, but we’ve added some new sushi items, rolling out a new sushi menu for kind of the spring summer of this year, and some new fish and duck dishes on the menu,” he says.
Rodarte creates a fish feature each week, as well as a different cut of steak to highlight, from Australian Wagyu tomahawks to even more massive formats.
“I like over-the-top, very theatrical presentations. Those are things I love to do,” Rodarte says. “I’m always trying to think of different ways to impress our guests who have a certain lifestyle, travel around the world, and could go anywhere to find certain dishes. So I want to bring something like maybe they’d get in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, to their own backyard.”
Rodarte notes Lincoln has already taken steak to a whole other level, so he hopes to bring flavors from around the world to diners in North Texas. He says Lincoln loves pasta, so he recently created a special featuring tagliolini all’uovo, a pasta made with 00 flour and “about 50” egg yolks.
“Taglioni is a little thin kind of pasta, very, very small and delicate. But that was kind of the base where I started my fish feature. I needed something also light and delicate to go with it, so I got some branzino, butterflied and deboned it, so the guest doesn’t have to worry about that,” he says. “I ended up making kind of like a lobster butter sauce to toss the pasta in. I accompanied that with some Carabineros [scarlet, deep-sea prawns] from Spain. And I finished it with an Italian salsa verde.”
On Thursday, May 7, Rodarte will lead a team representing Dee Lincoln Prime at DiningOut’s annual RARE Steak Championship in Irving. In a lead-up to the big chef competition, Rodarte will take over DiningOut’s Instagram page on Wednesday, April 15, offering a glimpse into a day in the life of a busy chef at a top-tier steakhouse.
“I’ll start, obviously, showing all the prep for the day that starts as I walk into the kitchen. I’ll probably post a video of me either fabricating one of our special cuts of meat, maybe some of our Wagyu or Kobe, or something along those lines. I’ll put together some content of me putting together a fish feature or a video of meat going out that I butchered. Maybe some sushi work, too, because we have a pretty awesome sushi program here.”
Followers might also get a glimpse at what Rodarte and his team will be preparing for RARE, but for now, the exact dish and creative approach are top secret. Fortunately, if you get a ticket, you can taste for yourself exactly what he’s preparing for Dee Lincoln Prime’s entry, as well as dishes from more than 20 other restaurants and steakhouses.
Come hungry for this one. Tickets to the RARE Steak Championship are on sale now. The event takes place on May 7, from 6-10 p.m, at Levy Event Plaza (501 E. Las Colinas Blvd. Irving)
