Follow Chef Zelko's YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLbJhWEkkC3CdrRXDEz8Wfw


New Ventures and Innovations. High Accredited and Sustainably Awarded, Chef Jamie Zelko has launched an International Imports Company.  The Future Heritage of Coffee resides in her hands. Check it out!   www.zelkoimports.com


https://youtu.be/60DvNqYhIwM

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Find out what Innovation & Sustainable Chef Jamie Zelko is Focused On Now!

The Zelko's Honeybee Project Launches Texas Awareness - Houston Chronicle

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/kyrie/article/The-buzz-is-all-about-honey-in-the-Heights-4448728.php

GoodTaste.tv - The Absolute Last Perfect Food in the World is...

Cadillac Culinary Masters: July | abc13.com

Cadillac Culinary Masters: July | abc13.com

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/feature?section=resources/lifestyle_community&id=8538056

Cadillac Culinary Masters: July | abc13.com

Cadillac Culinary Masters: July | abc13.com

The buzz is all about honey in the Heights

Locally harvested hives sweeten the menu at Zelko Bistro 

Kyrie O'Connor, Senior Editor/ Deputy , Houston Chronicle & EPPY Award winner

Karen Warren, Staff

Jamie Zelko harvests honey at Zelko Bistro.

The honey looks nothing like the pale stuff you get from a squeeze bear: It's dark, elemental, erotic. It looks like what it is: the product of living beings.

Dalia Zelko lifts up a screen from a hive box, heavy with wax, dripping with honey. Later, she cuts small chunks, comb and all, out of the screen and offers them for tasting. "Be careful. It's very rich," says Jamie Zelko, but I don't listen.

Dalia and Jamie, the founders of the Heights Honeybee Project, maintain 89-and-counting hives, most of them in the south part of the city, 40 in Alvin. The hives are on the property of volunteers willing to house them. The nonprofit project is what is commonly called a labor of love, a trite phrase that undercounts how much labor and how much love are involved.

The Zelkos, who are married and have a first-grader daughter, Viane, became passionate about bees when they saw the documentary "The Vanishing of the Bees" about three years ago, detailing the plague of colony collapse disorder, which has dramatically shrunk the population of useful honeybees.

Why care about the lack of honeybees, other than being happy not to be stung? Dalia, a master chemist, puts it succinctly: "No pollination, no farm, no food." It's not a stretch to say bees keep us alive.

Neither Dalia nor Jamie knew much about bees when they started out, but they're quick studies. They knew early on that they wanted to populate their hives with wild bees, not commercially grown ones. (They work in concert with bee wrangler Jennifer Scott.) For one thing, it's a way of saving native bees and moving them from nuisance situations to productive lives. For another, the wild bees, often hybrids of the unfairly maligned black Africanized bees and European gold-and-black bees, are sturdier, harder working, less prone to disease.

It's tough work. ("It's working because we're working" is how Jamie puts it.) The Zelkos make their own frames (there are 10 to a box) and sedulously try to maintain the most natural conditions for the bees, including recycling comb from which the honey has been extracted. "God owns the bees; we just create the environment," says Jamie.

Karen Warren, Staff

The Zelkos sell the honey at their restaurant.

Dalia may describe herself as a "science nerd," but she is almost mystical when she describes her relationship to the honeybees. "The bees know you are working with them, and they change their disposition the more you visit," she says. "They know who you are and remember you. If you establish a bond, you see more production of honey." She knows their various buzzes. Sometimes she sings to them.

Dalia is working with the medical center on medicinal benefits of bees and honey. (Jamie's allergies went away when she started eating local honey regularly.) Bee stings seem to help people with auto-immune disorders. But a bee will sting only in extreme circumstances. "The sting is a kamikaze act. The bee must really be threatened to actually sacrifice its life," says Jamie.

Over the holidays, Zelko Bistro had honey and beeswax candles for sale. They sold out. All proceeds get plowed back into the project.

Here are some facts about bees and honey: It takes 36 million blossoms to make one 10-frame box full of honey. A jar of honey requires 2 million blossoms. A bee's territory can't exceed a one-mile radius. Bees can see colors. Don't wear black if you visit a hive. Don't wear perfume.

Both Dalia and Jamie speak of the long relationship between bees and humans. Egyptians used honey in the preservation of mummies. The bee is a key symbol in Freemasonry. Jamie sums it up: "It's the coolest thing, and it's stunning, and it's ancient."

Read more: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/kyrie/article/The-buzz-is-all-about-honey-in-the-Heights-4448728.php#ixzz2R7IcHlqT

Read more:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/kyrie/article/The-buzz-is-all-about-honey-in-the-Heights-4448728.php?t=285b8d4ba2

Why Verlasso Salmon: Q&A With Dalia Zelko Of Zelko Bistro | Verlasso

Why Verlasso Salmon: Q&A With Dalia Zelko Of Zelko Bistro | Verlasso

Chef Jamie Zelko On Sustainable Aquaculture and Conservation
http://www.verlasso.com/conversation/article/why-verlasso-salmon-qa-with-dalia-zelko-of-zelko-bistro/

Q: What makes Verlasso salmon such a good fit for Zelko?Chef Zelko dedicates herself to running a purpose based restaurant that uses its reach to make a positive impact to social, environmental and economic sustainability. Verlasso salmon plays a very important part of this effort because of its innovative approach to sustainable seafood.  When Chef Zelko learned about the efficient consciousness involved in Verlasso’s farm raised salmon (wild feed stock, raising conditions), it was a no brainer.  We want to support innovative ways to address the future and longevity of our seafood.  Chef Zelko spends a large portion of her time on product research.  All of our protein here at Zelko has been carefully selected and tirelessly researched and Verlasso salmon is no exception.

The Absolute Last Perfect Food in the World Is…

The Absolute Last Perfect Food in the World Is…

A Texas non-profit called 'The Heights Honeybee Project' is certainly a 'buzzworthy' undertaking all of Houston and well beyond!

** Tanji Patton suits up! Find out what a day-in-the-life of Chef Jamie Zelko, Owner of Zelko Bistro and Co-Owner Dalia Zelko's beekeeping is all about!

Honey Bee Project is something both ladies have been working on for over two years now. Untapped, and never handled by humans, the honey nectar that bees produce contains high levels of antioxidants that help with blood flow, as well as regulation of our circulatory system  

Eat My Words :: Texas Monthly

Eat My Words :: Texas Monthly

The day has come! Tickets for the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival go on sale today, November 8, at 10 a.m. CST. The Festival, which takes place April 26-28, 2013 at Auditorium Shores and Republic Square Park, will feature a myriad of food and wine events, including hands-on seminars, food, wine, and cocktail tastings, book signings, live music performances, and much more.

Eat My Words :: Texas Monthly

Eat My Words :: Texas Monthly

 The day has come! Tickets for the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival go on sale today, November 8, at 10 a.m. CST. The Festival, which takes place April 26-28, 2013 at Auditorium Shores and Republic Square Park, Tickets are $850 for a Savor pass and $250 for a Taste pass.
The Savor pass includes priority access to demos, tastings, hands-on events, Grand Tastings, VIP
  

Chef Jamie Zelko in the Texas Line Up for her 3rd event on COOKING WITH AWARENESS, CONSERVATION & RAW ETHICS, A hit discussion that has led her to be invited to The James Beard House in 2013! Stay Tuned to www.zelkobistro.com

The Line Up : Tim Byres, chef/co-owner of SMOKE; Jason Dady, chef/owner of Jason Dady Restaurant Group; Ned Elliot, executive chef/owner of Foreign & Domestic; Jodi Elliot, pastry chef/owner of Foreign & Domestic;Chris Shepherd, executive chef of Underbelly; Philip Speer, pastry chef of Uchi and Uchiko; Blaine Staniford, executive chef of GRACE; Danny Trace, executive chef of Brennan’s; Tre Wilcox, executive chef of Marquee Grill; Andrew Wiseheart, executive chef of Contigo; and Jamie Zelko, executive chef/owner of Zelko Bistro.

Check out the NEW Zelko website www.zelkobistro.com

The new Zelko Bistro website is up, check out what we have been busy with and plans for the year 2012...
Photography by RealityPhotography.net

Zelko Bistro Puts Female Winemakers and Craft Beer Front and Center

​Zelko Bistro, although it's only been open for less than two years, has already garnered a reputation for its wine list: Aggressively priced, the list offers an excellent selection of wines between $28 and $46 a bottle. Chef and owner Jamie Zelko wanted it that way when she first opened, in keeping with the neighborhood bistro direction of her restaurant.

But Zelko and partner Jeb Stuart, who put together that wine list, parted ways a month ago, and Zelko has taken a drastically different direction with the bistro's wine list in that short time. While Stuart's list is still in place, Zelko has worked with her partner Dahlia Diaz to create a companion list that's entirely composed of wines from women-owned wineries.

"I'm not only a feminist by any means," Zelko said by phone yesterday, "but there has to be something said about this industry and what it takes to make it in this industry. And as a woman, if you don't give that 110 percent you'll fall back in the crowd."

To Zelko, that extra effort makes wines from women-owned and -run wineries that much better. She talks about the subtle nuances and inherent femininity in wines like those of Heidi Barrett from Napa Valley, such as her signature La Sirena, or those of Sara Floyd, one of only 13 female master sommeliers in America.

"The wines are incredible," Zelko says. "I had a meeting today with Kathy Joseph from Fiddlehead Cellars and her wine is just so beautiful, very feminine but well thought out."

But more than just wanting to showcase other women in a very male-dominated business -- just like her own -- Zelko sees this new wine list as "paying it forward."


A Pulenta Estate Malbec from Zelko's "regular" wine list.

​"I support them for their forward-thinking practices and just because they're amazing," she says of women who have been pioneers in their field, just as she has in her own -- after all, there aren't many female executive chefs in Houston, let alone many who also own their restaurant. "It's about the people who are really, really inspiring to me in their craft and what they do."

It's a smart move at a time when women have now taken over as "core drinkers" of wine in America. In 2010, wine and food writer John Mariani was surprised to learn that 53 percent of wine drinkers and buyers are now women. But Zelko insists that statistics like these have no bearing on her decision to showcase female winemakers.

"I'm not using it as a marketing scheme; I'm using it to support them, not to bastardize the concept."

And in addition to offering a wine list of women-owned wineries -- a first of its kind, as far as my research (and Zelko's) can tell -- she's emphasizing organic and sustainably-grown wines on her regular list as well.

"I've been doing independent, sustainably-harvested produce and agriculture, so I've also conicided that with my wine list," Zelko explained. But she's wary of wine reps who try to pass off any old bottle as "organic," recognizing that it's a nebulous and arbitrary word that can and is inappropriately applied in most instances.

To head them off, she's undertaken all the exploration and fact-finding on these organic wines herself. "I really need to research this stuff. The sales reps just want to sell the bottles," she laughed.

Zelko also recognizes that as independent wineries -- whether women-owned, organic or both -- are making their mark, so is craft beer. And she's expanded that portion of her menu as well, adding selections from Texas brewers like Real Ale, Southern Star and Saint Arnold as well as other excellent craft brewers like Breckenridge Brewery. She's even pairing the wine and beer together in some dishes in a way, recommending an Engine Room sparkling Shiraz with her Saint Arnold's root beer-braised short ribs.

In typical Zelko and bistro fashion, however, not everything on her new list is high end.

"I added Lone Star to the list," she chuckled. "Everyone in the back of the house and all the industry drinks it."

"And," she added with a laugh, "we sold out that same day."

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Zelko Bistro

705 E. 11th St., Houston, TX

Category: Best Restaurant



Tags:
beer, craft beer, Heights Texas, Chef Jamie Zelko, wine, ifluental women, Zelko Bistro, Top Chef Zelko, Food Network


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Food Network airs Zelko Bistro April 18th!!

We got our own backstage look at Zelko Bistro, where the production team was filming Chef Jamie Zelko for the "Comfort Meats" episode, which will air April 18. It featured Fama sampling the bistro's Meatloaf in a Can served with (my personal favorite) house-made fried pickles.

But the photos we took on set that day were embargoed...until now. Check out our slideshow of the on-set action and remember to tune in tonight at 9 p.m. to cheer Houston on.


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Zelko Bistro named "Best Comfort Food" by Houston Press

Best Comfort Food Restaurant - 2010
Zelko Bistro

Readers' Choice:

Located in an airy little house in the Heights, the newly minted Zelko Bistro has taken a concept we readily adore — comfort food — and added an upmarket spin. Are you one of those naysayers who think comfort food and white linen don't jibe? Fried chicken breaded with Cap'n Crunch, an outstanding Reuben and the city's best fried green tomatoes will have you thinking otherwise. Chef Jamie Zelko seems to know that reputable meatloaf is essential if comfort food's your game. Cooked in a can and served over a mound of buttery mashed potatoes, her "Homeless Joe" meatloaf dances on the tightrope separating down-home and upmarket. You'll want it again and again. Fried pickles, hearty soups and a fabulous burger are additional reasons to hang your hat on the Zelko rack night after night.

Houston Press October 2010

Captain...as in Crunch, that is.

Yes, that's right. Houston's Hottest Chef award winner Jamie Zelko of Zelko Bistro (705 E. 11th St) is serving up farm fresh chicken coated with Cap 'n Crunch, fried until crispy golden brown. As if that is not enough to make you order it -- which it should be -- it also comes with Yukon mashed potatoes, shallot jam and some type of lovely green vegetable to round it all out ($14).

I have to admit, I actually ordered something else, the delicious shrimp and grits, to be exact, but my dining companion got the chicken, which was thrilling. He's a darling boy, but a tad squeamish about his food, so he was visibly relieved to see the chicken was boneless. I was cool with it, as this made for no wasted children's cereal coating.

The mashed potatoes were honestly some of the most flavorful I have had in quite some time, which says a lot, since I love my potatoes. They were exceptional. The asparagus were cooked tender-crisp and were likewise delicious.

But that chicken...oh, man! Sometimes a gimmicky food doesn't work out, but when it does, it's like your birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. You not only get the fun of ordering and anticipating a nostalgic culinary creation, but also the joy of eating something that is truly a gourmet treat. The chicken was intensely moist and flavorful, with an unbelievably tasty, crunchy exterior. Then to make it even better, they top it with that caramelized shallot jam which adds a hint of tangy sweetness. I am adding this dish to my top 10 list of comfort foods immediately.

American Girl

American Girl

88.7 KUHF Radio and Jamie's take on off street parking

http://app1.kuhf.org/houston_public_radio-news-display.php?articles_id=1271202890

Off-Street Parking Ordinance: City May Amend To Reflect Current Trends


April 14, 2010

by: Wendy Siegle

Houston has long been considered a car-centric city. But when it comes to parking all those cars, the interests of homeowners, businesses, and their patrons often collide. From the KUHF NewsLab, Wendy Siegle has the story on how Houston's off-street parking rules could soon change.




“If you’re going into business and you’re looking for a location to open anything, I’m sorry but the number one thing, other than demographics, is parking. If you don’t have parking, then you’re not going to have it.”

Houston-born chef Jamie Zelko is opening her very first restaurant today on West 11th street in The Heights. Zelko Bistro was supposed to open last year but eager foodies had to wait while Zelko struggled with the various city codes that have to be met when converting an old house into a restaurant. The off-street parking law was one of the toughest.

“Off-street parking was difficult because you are required to have eight spots per thousand square feet. And we are a 1920s bungalow so we had to look for other options.”

Zelko Bistro is 1700 square feet, meaning it has to provide a minimum of 14 spaces that aren’t on the street. That was hard for Zelko since her restaurant is situated on a residential-sized lot. She says there’s plenty of parking on the street, but the city doesn’t take that into consideration. In the end, Zelko had to come up with $33,000 to build a compact lot on the property and is also shelling out a monthly fee to lease a lot nearby.

“The off-street parking, it was actually a pretty big hit for us.” Zelko isn’t alone. Many small businesses struggle with Houston’s off-street parking rules. The ordinance has barely changed since 1989. This is Marlene Gafrick, director of Houston’s Planning and Development department. “We really haven’t done a rewrite of the ordinance, or really looked at it, and our development trends have changed.”

Houston is undoubtedly growing; more people are moving inside the loop, and more businesses want to open up shop here. So on the one hand, Houston has an increase in dense, walkable areas; and on the other hand, city laws haven’t caught up with the trends and are still based on the assumption that everyone will be driving.

The Houston Planning Commission is now reevaluating the off-street parking ordinance. At a recent public meeting in The Montrose, parking concerns clashed. Homeowners don’t want people parking in front of their houses to go to nearby businesses, small business owners want to lower the minimum off-street parking requirements and others worry about not having anywhere to park.

“I think the best solution for Houston would be to completely discard the parking ordinance and to not have any parking requirements at all.”

That’s urban designer Andrew Burleson. He takes a free-market approach and suggests letting businesses decide how many parking spaces they need to make their customers happy. That way, valuable land won’t be wasted. Homeowners, he says, can petition to have parking meters installed, which could deal with any overflow onto nearby streets.

“If you try to micro-control it, you end up with a situation where your regulation becomes so onerous and complex that it’s paralyzing for businesses.”

While it’s unlikely that the city will embrace Burleson’s “no ordinance” solution, planners are looking at a variety of possible amendments—more parking meters is one of them. Others include reevaluating how far people are willing to walk to park, revising the parking ratios for businesses, and reducing parking requirements along transit stops. Bar owner Steven Scalice offered his two-cents at the meeting and says the city should require more shared parking lots, like the one in Rice Village. There, people pay to park in a garage and some businesses validate the tickets.

“Everyone wins. It solves the problem for parking; it solves the congestion problem."

Wendy: "So instead of having multiple lots all over the place, you can have one lot shared and maybe multi-level even."

"Exactly.”