Houston will host its seventh Grand Opera Wine Classic this month, and Beard members will get a taste of this grand event when this year's participating chefs bring their show on the road with a stop at the House.

Although these chefs come from three very different corners of the world and preside over three very different restaurants, their passion for fabulous food and great wines unites them.

Louis Cressy was born, raised, and schooled in one of the great food cities of the world--New Orleans--and it shows. His food at Houston's highly regarded Lancaster Bistro in the Lancaster Hotel is a provocative, lively blend of Cajun-Creole, French classical, and Southern cooking. Cressy credits his grandmother for his love of food and adventurous palate, but his formal culinary training came at Delgado Community College and an apprenticeship at Henri in Le Meridien Hotel in New Orleans, where he had the good fortune to work under Marc Haeberlin, the three-star chef and owner of Auberge de L'Ill in Alsace. Cressy then moved on to the highly regarded Ristorante Bacco and Mr. B's, both owned by the Brennan family. Now at Lancaster Bistro, Cressy has come into his own, serving comfortable food with earthy flavors in combinations that deliver many delightful surprises. Texans in-the-know crowd into the bistro to indulge in his stunning fare, like a "perfect hunk of salmon--crispy surface, silky interior-- on a spinach-phyllo 'napoleon' [which] stunned us into silence," wrote one satiated reviewer at Houston.sidewalk.com.

Thousands of miles away, a German investor bought a fanciful, turreted chateau in Saint Emilion, France that had fallen into ruin. He spent years refurbishing it, ultimately turning it into a grand hotel. Then he looked for a chef whose food would be worthy of the Hôtel Château Grand Barrail. He found his man in Philippe Etchebest, whose energy and passion in the kitchen so impressed Sud Ouest that Sylvain Viaut wrote simply, "he radiates." Etchebest received his training in the classical French manner, beginning as a teenager at his parents' restaurant, Au Chipiron in Bordeaux, and then moving on to several two-star restaurants: Le Royal Gray in Cannes (chef de partie), Le Clos Longchamp in Paris (sous chef) and Les Jardins de l'Opéra in Toulouse (chef). At the Château Grand Barrail, Etchebest creates elegant dishes like pan-sautéed sturgeon with cucumber and caviar cream, and sliced brill in Marsala and truffle sauce, which are paired with wines from what this year's Gault Millau called "an extraordinary cellar." The guide wrote admiringly of Etchebest, who is just 29: "A great bravo to the young chef... who has surely not finished surprising us."

A long way south of Saint Emilion and high up on South Africa's Franschhoek Pass sits the award-winning Haute Cabriere Cellar Restaurant, which overlooks one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. The restaurant's wines come from the Pinot Noir vineyard on the slopes immediately below, and its unusual menu has been designed by chef Matthew Gordon to complement the vineyard's acclaimed Pierre Jourdan and Haute Cabrière wines. Much of the food Gordon serves is grown or raised so close to his restaurant that diners could practically choose the ingredients themselves from their own tables. He grills salmon that swim in the mountain's cold streams, vegetables and herbs from a family farm, and peaches, plums, and pears from orchards that dot the valley below. The stellar wine and food, the elegance of the venue, and the breathtaking views have placed Haute Cabriere on every one of South Africa's top 10 restaurant listings.

By the time these three garnish the last plate and shut off all the burners, Cressy, Gordon, and Etchebest will have forged a bond that only those who have shared time behind the stoves can know, and we will have relished a gastronomic experience of international proportions.