Meredith Larke
Uchi | Houston
December 2019
Texan Meredith Larke was exposed to the food world at an early age. When Larke was nine years old, her father opened a barbecue catering company from their Dallas home, setting an inspiring, if smoky, example for his daughter. She eventually decided to pursue her own culinary dream, just not on the savory side of the kitchen. Larke baked and decorated cakes in her spare time, and this became a business for the aspiring entrepreneur.
Seeking formal training, Larke traveled to the French Pastry School in Chicago for what was meant to be a six-month stay. Instead, Larke found herself living in the city for more than four years, cooking mostly in the pastry kitchen but sometimes on the hot line for Boka Group, Embeya, Perennial Virant, Naha, and GT Fish & Oyster, among other lauded spots around town. While a student, Larke interned at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, Ireland. That experience, combined with her work at Perennial, Green City Market, and her own upbringing, crystallized her passion for preserving, fermenting, and sustainable cooking practices.
Now living in Houston, Larke is pastry chef of James Beard Award winning Tyson Cole’s Uchi outpost. Responsible for the pastry menus at Uchi Houston, Uchi Dallas, and Uchiba in Dallas, Larke reinterprets staple menu items, like Uchi’s iconic fried milk, making them her own. She also showcases her creative verve with new dishes that have their own cult followings—here’s lookin’ at you, foie gras candy bar.
