Romancing the Praline
When a chef and a food artisan work together a Little Kitchen is born
At a well-executed farm dinner, if all goes according to plan, the worries and cares associated with urban living fall away.
For guests hoping to experience a connection with the land and the people who work it, there is a kind of magic in these dinners, a space created to share both a meal and a mindset. This is where the land, the sky and the toil of Texas farmers can change lives. With the right conditions, it’s a heady experience that feels a little like love, and a lot like romance.
So it’s no surprise that a successful farm dinner starts from the heart. And sometimes, from two hearts.
Behind the scenes, beyond the clink of forks on plates and apart from long tables adorned with place settings, there’s an unmistakable energy in the food industry couple working in tandem, preparing the next round of plates to feed a swath of hungry customers. That’s where chef Jason Kerr and Eat My Praline owner Becca Reyenga—a pair whose romantic relationship blossomed into a thriving business— now connect with each other and the greater Houston food community.
Before carving out their niche in the Houston food scene as a couple in 2017, Kerr and Reyenga were focused on their respective jobs, unaware that they would meet, form a bond around their food philosophies and start a successful business as a result.
The two met, fittingly, at the East Side Farmers Market. Reyenga was overseeing her Eat My Pralines stall when she met Kerr, a Houston-area chef and market regular. A conversation about food led to a successful sushi date, where they were the last customers to leave the restaurant. From that first date, it became clear that big possibilities were on the horizon. Soon after, Kerr brought up the idea of combining their catering and event expertise to work together as a team.
Under the moniker Lowfi Praline, Kerr and Reyenga began their working relationship in March, offering pop-ups and catering in partnership with food community counterparts at Houston-area farms, breweries, performances and festivals. Though some might worry about running an operation alongside a romantic partner, spending time around the two of them reveals an obvious affection that translates to their work and their food.
Regarding their joint venture, Kerr maintains that Reyenga breathed new life into his desire to do large-scale pop-ups and catering. “Something about working with her brings out the best in me,” he said, and added that her hard work ethic and drive contributed to what’s truly become their labor of love. Reyenga describes meeting Kerr as “incredible” personally and professionally, giving her the ability to contribute to whole meals and take both of their skills to a new level.
Reyenga’s immersion in the area’s food community aligns closely with Eat My Pralines, the business she started in 2015. Though her love for food and sweets started long before then, it took several jobs and a graduate degree before she realized she had to take a leap of faith on pralines. She earned a masters in business administration from The University of Mississippi and worked jobs in finance and asset management before directing her focus on the venture that would earn her accolades including Edible Houston’s 2017 Local Hero Food Artisan. Using her Louisiana-born mother’s praline recipe as the base for her business, Reyenga takes traditional pralines seriously. She also loves making new flavors with complementary ingredients like walnut and ginger, or almond and cocoa. With a natural desire to experiment and a reverence for regional recipes, it’s not surprising that working alongside farmers—and later Kerr—was a natural fit.
As for Kerr, using local, seasonal ingredients from farmers he’s met isn’t just a habit ingrained from more than 26 years of professional cooking. His full-time sourcing gig at Farm to Table means constant connection to Texas farmers and local purveyors, as the Texas company distributes locally grown farm products to restaurants, commercial kitchens, cafeterias and independent grocery stores.
Whether preparing a five-course foragers dinner at urban farm Finca Tres Robles or serving up comfort food for Moth show attendees at Warehouse Live, the couple always features local and seasonal products that showcase elements of the Texas landscape.
Dishes and ingredients vary with the seasons and venue, so a menu from the duo could include anything from heritage pork belly made from Red Wattle hog fed on spent beer grain to hummus made from local black-eyed peas and topped with watermelon radishes. Reyenga’s pralines usually show up as an added element to desserts like praline banana pudding and praline bread pudding with bourbon sauce.
Following a year of successful dinners and catering experiences as Lowfi Praline, Kerr and Reyenga decided to take their working relationship a step further in 2018, with the launch of a storefront and their company’s new name: Little Kitchen.
Reyenga and Kerr say the newly named venture gives them the ability to “do what we’re already doing more often and on a larger scale.” In addition to providing small and large dinners of all kinds, as Little Kitchen they’ll add weddings, birthday parties and corporate events to their services.
The kitchen will open early in 2018 and serve as the storefront for Eat My Pralines, which Reyenga will continue to helm. As they grow, the duo plans to serve carryout direct to customers and through services like Uber Eats, Door Dash and Amazon, using the storefront as an opportunity to bring locally farmed creations, and food made with love, to an ever-widening audience.
> Little Kitchen is located 12313 Bellaire Blvd. Unit K. Visit eatmypralines.com and/or littlekitchenhtx.com for more information
