Houston’s Olympic Chef Creates a Showcase Dinner and Sunday Rent Party Series — In Sound and Color With Dawn Burrell

Houston Olympian turned chef Dawn Burrell is determined to present food experiences like no other. The long jumper competed in the  2000 Sydney Olympics for the United States before making a career jump to become a chef in 2008. She earned a finalist nod on season 18 of Bravo’s Top Chef, got named a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2020 and is now a chef/partner in the Houston-based Lucille’s Hospitality Group.

Burrell introduced a multidisciplinary, multi-part dining series dubbed Sound and Color, created in collaboration with artists, chefs and other creative makers, last year. Its diner events have featured singer Vanessa Hill, Chef Dominick Lee and Chef Tristen Epps, among others.

The series is inspired by a 2015 Alabama Shakes song of the same name. To Burrell, the song “symbolizes rebirth or new beginnings, beckoning the future whatever it may, while fighting the natural fear of the unknown.” These are themes which she brings into each Sound and Color dinner.

The January edition of Sound and Color, titled Water is for Everyone, spotlighted artist Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee. The Indian-born and Houston-based muralist, marine conservationist and scuba diver is driven by a passion to protect the earth’s oceans and share their beauty. Houstonians are likely familiar with Folmsbee’s The Aquarius Art Tunnel at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, a floor-to-ceiling mural of underwater wonders complete with sound effects and filtered lighting.

Installations of Folmsbee’s art were on display during the dinner — the location of which was a secret revealed only to ticket holders — and the artist shared stories of her work and conservation efforts throughout the evening.

For each Sound and Color event, Chef Burrell curates her meals around the stories and culture of the featured guest. This evening’s five-course dinner consisted of king trumpet carpaccio, seared purple cabbage, koji glazed carrots, goat ghormeh sabzi and black sesame sponge cake, complemented with wine pairings from Monica Jones, aka The Black Wine-O.

Reflecting on each course, Folmsbee remarked on the connections between the food and her work.

“Mushroom mycelium networks are woven just like how our oceans are connected to one another,” Folmsbee says of the king trumpet carpaccio. “It set the pace for the dinner, to remind the audience that what we do on one side of the planet affects another part of it. And that water is for everyone.”

This month, Burrell is hosting a two-day experience in collaboration with artist Robert Hodge. Sound and Color: Lived and Living is set to take place Saturday, February 22 — a listening party for Hodge’s upcoming album Between the Devil and the Deep, with curated cocktails and small plates. Then on Sunday, February 23, Burrell will host her debut Rent party. The name, an acronym for Rekindle, Engage, Nurture and Togetherness is also a reference to the rent parties of the Harlem Renaissance era.

These Rent Parties — “a Sunday Social with dancing, networking, great food, vibe and cocktails” in Burrell’s will take place every month going forward as well.

Call it another well-timed Dawn Burrell leap. 

Check out @chefdawnburrell on Instagram for information about the next Sound and Color dinner event.