Dean Fearing
Chef/Owner, Fearing's | Dallas
December 2021
Dean Fearing grew up in the kitchens of his father’s inns across the Midwest with dreams of becoming a rockstar. Thanks to some encouragement from his father, Fearing was pushed towards taking a cooking course taught by Chef Harvey Colgin. Colgin saw Fearing’s potential as a chef and, after a two-year apprenticeship, helped him enroll in The Culinary Institute of America in 1976. After graduation, Fearing made a name for himself as the chef at Dallas’s historic Mansion on Turtle Creek. During his 26-year tenure, he earned the title of Best Chef: Southwest from The James Beard Foundation, made multiple television appearances, published two cookbooks (Mansion on Turtle Creek Cookbook and Dean Fearing’s Southwest Cuisine), and became nationally recognized for pioneering modern Southwestern cuisine. In 2007, Fearing partnered with The Ritz Carlton to open his American dining destination, Fearings Restaurant. He has since released a third cookbook titled, The Texas Food Bible, and continues to make a lasting impact on Texas’s ever-evolving dining scene.
2021 StarChef Dallas Rising Stars Mentor Award Winner presented by Vitamix Commercial
