Stephan Pyles is a chef, cookbook author, philanthropist, and educator. His dishes blend elements of Southern homestyle cooking, Southwestern fare, Mexican food and Tex-Mex food, as well as Cajun cuisine and Creole cookery. Pyles, along with his colleagues, Dean Fearing, Robert Del Grande, and Anne Lindsay Greer contributed to changes in the cuisine of the U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Pyles spent more than 25 years in the Dallas restaurant circuit, and was further the main creator of New Texas Cuisine. His first two restaurants were the business casual Routh Street Cafe which was founded in 1983 as well as a miniature version of said restaurant called Baby Routh. These restaurants are known for being the flagship of the Southwestern Cuisine explosion of the 1980s and 1990s. Since opening Routh Street Cafe, Pyles has opened some 15 restaurants, including Samar in the fall of 2009. Pyles, a fifth-generation Texa. He was awarded, 'Outstanding Restaurateur of the Year' by both the Minnesota Restaurant Association and Texas Restaurant Association. Stephan Pyles is the author of five cookbooks on Texan and Southwestern Cuisine. In addition to his many achievements, he also hosted the Emmy Award winning PBS television series "New Tastes From Texas With Chef Stephan Pyles." This series ran during 1998 and 1999 and included a number of guest Celebrity chefs, including Diana Kennedy, Rick Bayless, Patricia Quintana, Zarela Martinez, Americo Circuit and David Garrido . Early life Stephan Pyles was born in Big Spring, Texas, in 1952. He received classical training in voice and piano, but preferred to apprentice in the kitchen of his family's West Texas truck stop. This was followed by training in fine French Cuisine. Pyles published a cookbook entitled "The New Texas Cuisine", which made him nationally recognized by his early thirties. Career Pyles owned and operated the Dallas restaurants Routh Street Cafe and Baby Routh from 1983 to 1993. He owned and operated the restaurants Goodfellow's and Tejas in Minneapolis from 1987 to 1993. In 1994 Pyles opened Star Canyon. The James Beard Foundation called it one of the top five new restaurants in America, and it was well reviewed in Bon Apetit, Esquire Magazine, Town and Country, Playboy and other publications. The September 1998 issue of Food and Wine Magazine listed Star Canyon as the "quintessential Dallas restaurant." In 1997, Pyles opened AquaKnox, a global seafood restaurant. It too was named a