television that morning: “This just in — unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City.”
The Congressional Picnic had been scheduled for Tuesday, September 11th, 2001.
“I turned to Lisa and said, ‘We’re not going to cater any party tonight,’” Perini says. “I opened the windows, and it was such a beautiful day. But there were sirens, and we could smell smoke from the Pentagon. The party was cancelled immediately.”
But in the midst of the chaos and terror, the food Perini had intended to serve to politicians that day went to a much greater cause — feeding the firefighters and first responders at the Pentagon. “I offered to fire up the pits and cook the food,” Perini recalls, “but they said, ‘No, no, Tom — we can’t have any smoke coming up from the White House. And we can’t do anything that would make anyone think something festive was going on.’ So they cooked it all in the White House kitchen.”
The next day, Perini and his crew were getting their
THEY ASKED PERINI,
TO MAKE THE PLACE SO‘TEXAS’“?
“WHAT DO YOU DO
Texas cooking, whether it was the $120 tenderloin or the $10 chuck burger — which won “best burger” on NBC’s Today show in 2009. Perini has also been featured in several maga- zines, including on the cover of Texas Monthly. Heck, in 2013 he even got air conditioning for the restaurant. And in 2014, almost 20 years after he made that $10,000 trip up to New York to cook for the James Beard House, Perini Ranch Steakhouse was honored as an “America’s Classic” by the James Beard Foundation. If cooking at the House is like playing Carnegie, being an “America’s Classic” is like winning Best Picture at the Oscars.
Through the entire journey, Perini has prided himself
equipment off the White House lawn. “At noon I was stand- ing out back with about five of our cowboys,” Perini says. “I hear this loud whistle and my name called out. President Bush came out and talked to us for a few minutes and said, ‘I’m sorry you can’t cater our party.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, you’ve got more to worry about than that.’ He said, ‘I know it, but I’m not going to let these people change the way we live our lives.’ Then he said, ‘I’ve got to go back in. I’ve got the president of France on hold.’ As he walked back to the White House, the president told me, ‘We will do this party again.’” And they would. Perini would return the next year to successfully host the Congressional Picnic. He’d also go on to cater meals for world leaders from the president of China to Vladimir Putin at Crawford Ranch. “There was the Secret Service, Russian secret service, food tasters, the whole bit,” Perini says. “Which makes you a little queasy. I thought, ‘What am I doing? Here are the two most powerful men in the world, and I’m feeding them?’ I kind of had a little talk with myself: ‘If you couldn’t do it, they wouldn’t have asked you. Get back in the kitchen.’” Afterward, Putin had a chat with Perini. “He said, ‘That’s probably the best meat I’ve ever had,’” Perini recalls. “After that I was sent by the Texas Beef Council and U.S. Meat Export Federation to Russia. We helped promote U.S. beef to the Russian chefs, and I tried to teach them how to cook it.”
Tom Perini and his Perini Ranch Steakhouse would go on to rack up numerous awards and acclaim for authentic
• VISIT
Perini Ranch Steakhouse
PeriniRanch.com
VISIT
AbileneVisitors.com VISIT
Buffalo Gap Historic Village
tfhcc.com
VISIT Abilene State Park
http://tpwd.texas.gov/ state-parks/Abilene
on remaining true to his passion of cooking authentic Texas food for anybody who wants the authentic Texas experience. Even if it’s something intangible, the genuine spirit of Texas is cooked into every ribeye, tenderloin, burger and brisket. A while back, some gentlemen were eating lunch at Perini Ranch Steakhouse. They were definitely in suits, definitely out of place and definitely representing a big steakhouse that was making its way down to Texas. After Perini struck up a conversation with the men, they asked, “What do you do to make the place so ‘Texas?’” “I don’t,” Perini coyly replied. “And it is.”
SPRING 2016 39
FROM LEFT: COURTESY PERINI RANCH STEAKHOUSE; REBECCA KINNISON/
FRONTIERTEXAS.COM
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