Dallas’s beloved Dean Fearing is not what you’d expect from a celebrity chef. Wearing a white coat embroidered with a cowboy boot, he makes the rounds nightly in his seven-room Ritz-Carlton restaurant, which includes outdoor seating and a wine cellar for private parties. Befriending every guest, even giving away his secrets (he told me how to prepare his halibut!), he couldn’t be less pretentious. So, you might not guess that he’s a James Beard Award winner, cookbook author, and owner of what Zagat once listed as the number-one hotel dining establishment—not just in Texas, but in the entire country.