People
A Full Plate
Always-in-demand Hoover Alexander dishes up simple, savory food that tastes like home
- By Ellen Sweets
- Issue: March 2009
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- Will van Overbeek
Hoover Alexander is the kind of home-grown treasure who keeps Southern food real by offering unpretentious dishes that Mom served to start or end the day: vittles that are simple, tasty, fresh, filling and plentiful. And the ground rules don’t change much, whether he’s cooking food at one of his two Austin restaurants, catering a church picnic, feeding dancers at the Governor’s Ball, appearing at the Texas Food & Wine Festival, doing a cooking demonstration for the Food Network or serving up his signature smothered pork chops in the nation’s capital. Here or there, his food still tastes like home.
Last year, Alexander took his cooking beyond Texas when he accepted an invitation to strut his stuff at the Smithsonian Institution’s annual Folklife Festival. The midsummer 10-day festival in Washington, D.C., spotlighted Texas in 2008.
For the festival, instead of dishing out smoked ribs, catfish, greens and cobbler, Alexander introduced festivalgoers to those smothered pork chops; his ever-popular banana pudding cheesecake; and a special creation, his tribute to author Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Alexander called his oven-roasted chicken marinated in tequila and Shiner Bock beer “Tequila Bock ’n’ Bird.” All three were hits.
“I did a series of cooking demonstrations that also featured breakfast foods from my days growing up on the family ranch in Pilot Knob, mainly old-fashioned (cornmeal) hoecakes with my mother’s tomato preserves,” he says.
Hoover’s Tequila Bock ‘n’ Bird
- 2 cups bottled Italian salad dressing
1 cup Shiner Bock beer
3 tablespoons tequila
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 cup chicken stock
8 chicken thighsWhisk together salad dressing, beer, tequila, Worcestershire sauce, pineapple juice, curry powder, if desired, ginger, garlic, onion, sugar, black pepper and chicken stock. Set aside 3/4 cup marinade in a separate container and store, covered, in refrigerator for later use.
In a container large enough to hold all eight pieces, marinate chicken for 24 hours, covered. Turn two or three times. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before removing from marinade. Discard marinade and remove reserved marinade from the refrigerator.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a shallow casserole dish with vegetable oil. Reduce heat to 400 degrees.
Place chicken in a single layer and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until juices run clear when pierced with a knife.
Meanwhile, heat reserved marinade, but don’t boil. When chicken is done, brush with reserved marinade and serve.
Smothered Pork Chops
- 2 cups flour
3 teaspoons salt, divided
3 teaspoons black pepper, divided
1 teaspoon cayenne (red) pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 cup milk
2 eggs beaten well
4 center cut, bone-in pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
4 tablespoons vegetable oilCreate seasoned flour by thoroughly combining flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons black pepper, red pepper and garlic powder. Create an egg wash by whisking together milk, eggs, and remaining salt and pepper. Dip pork chops in egg wash, letting excess liquid drip off, then quickly dredge in seasoned flour, lightly coating pork chops. Fry in heated oil until golden brown, using a cast-iron skillet if available; otherwise, use a heavy frying pan. Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pork chops in a single layer in a shallow casserole dish at least 2 inches deep, cover with Onion Gravy and bake for 25 minutes.
Onion Gravy
1 1/2 quarts beef broth
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon beef base (for making soup) or 1 cube beef bullion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cups minced onion
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
In a large saucepan or stockpot, heat broth, Worcestershire sauce, beef base, garlic powder and black pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover over low heat and set aside.
In a sauté pan (or the same cast-iron skillet that pork chops were cooked in, rinsed and dried), combine oil and flour over medium heat and stir until the mixture (roux) is browned. Stir in onion and garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk roux into stockpot. Continue whisking until gravy is slightly thickened. Add additional beef broth or water if gravy is too thick.
A Southern Feast
- When Alexander catered the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church’s annual picnic last summer, members chowed down on:
• 350 pounds of smoked beef shoulder
• 300 chickens
• 300 pounds of smoked sausage
• 38 gallons of barbecued beans
• 150 pounds of cole slaw
• 300 pounds of potato salad
• 500 ears of roasted corn on the cob
March 2009
“When people worked farms or ranches, they had to have a hearty breakfast at the start of the day to sustain them through lunch. They didn’t have time to go back to the house for lunch, so they brought food that would tide them over to supper.”
The 42-year-old festival keeps America’s heritage alive through historical presentations, from music, arts and food. Alexander made his case through what he characterizes as “po’ folks’ food”—the multiethnic, multinational evolution of now-popular dishes that originated from a need to make every bit of everything stretch, from green chilies and salsa to making full use of the whole pig. They call it “home cooking” and “soul food” now, but it all evolved from a need to avoid wasting anything edible.
“I talked about how I serve Elgin sausages in my restaurant, which descended from German traditions; chicken smothered in green chile sauces came from Mexican culture,” Alexander says. “People seemed really interested to know what we take for granted. Then there were the people from Texas who stopped by and were really excited to taste food from home.”
Zigzag to a career
A fifth-generation Texan, Alexander entered the University of Texas as a communications major, then zigzagged through a series of disciplines before realizing that what he really wanted to do was cook.
An equally circuitous route brought him to where he is. “At one point I even worked three jobs, waiting tables at Steak and Ale, working banquets and bartending at the old Sheraton (hotel) and cooking at the Night Hawk,” Alexander says. “That’s when I realized I might as well admit the fact that I wanted a career in food.”
The career choice tested him severely. Moving through a series of stops at Austin restaurants—including the New Orleans-themed Toulouse in 1982, through Chez Fred and, more recently, Good Eats—Alexander had his share of missteps and bad decisions, but each, good and bad, provided the kind of education not available through classroom lectures.
The combination of practical and academic experience has paid off in his Austin restaurants, Hoover’s Cooking. Alexander is a blur moving around the outer edges of the room, then heading for his office to do inventory, sign paychecks, check e-mail, return calls. Then he’s sweeping through the room, clearing tables, pouring more iced tea and, oh, wait, new arrivals need a table; the hostess is already seating a party of six. Alexander slips into “host” mode, meeting and greeting, stopping from time to time to chat with regulars or wish someone a happy birthday.
When the place is packed, he appreciates the importance of tending to details. Folks who own successful restaurants know that attention to detail is the heart of their success. It’s also the sort of thing that attracts the attention of, oh, say, a major mention on the Food Network’s “Best Of” series featuring those smothered pork chops.
On any given day at Alexander’s restaurants, servers sweep through the kitchen bearing trays laden with plates of fried catfish, greens, smoked ribs and sausage, and peach, cherry or mango cobbler. Such specials as short ribs, brisket or baked chicken are posted on a blackboard for those wanting to go off-menu. Mostly, though, his followers want what’s on the menu.
When Alexander catered the Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church’s annual picnic last summer, members chowed down on 350 pounds of smoked beef shoulder; 300 chickens; 300 pounds of smoked sausage; 38 gallons of barbecued beans; 150 pounds of cole slaw; 300 pounds of potato salad; and 500 ears of roasted corn on the cob.
The iced tea held out. The lemonade didn’t.
This feeding of 1,200 hungry souls was accomplished with the help of nine staffers instead of the scheduled 11. For an event like this, the absence of four hands made a difference. Alexander did what good chefs do in situations that call for an instant management decision: Do now, freak out later.
Always good food
“I’ve always been around good food and loved it,” Alexander says in his unmistakable resonant bass voice. “Both of my grandfathers were excellent cooks, as were my mother and my father. He was an over-the-road truck driver, but he loved being in the kitchen.”
His mother, Dorothy, was a dietitian at Holy Cross Hospital in Austin, while his father, the late Hoover Sr., cooked for various University of Texas fraternity houses between driving gigs.
All of life’s fits and starts prepared Hoover Jr. for a deeper understanding of how not to run a business, as well as how to run one. Alexander’s career has been risk-taking tempered by rewards. His second restaurant in North Austin is taking off, but the one in San Antonio lasted only 2 1/2 years.
Asked whether he has plans for any more restaurants, Alexander shakes his head and answers wearily.
Then, after a brief hesitation, he adds, “But you never know.”
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Ellen Sweets recently retired from the Denver Post.
