Abel Gonzales Jr. (born November 1969), also known as Fried Jesus, is an "extreme fryer" and the five-time winner of Big Tex Choice Awards, an annual contest at the

Texas State Fair The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II as well as 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ...

, and the inventor of several

deep fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Norma ...

items including

Fried Coke Fried Coke or Deep Fried Soda is a frozen Coca-Cola-flavored batter that is deep-fried and then topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, and a cherry. It was introduced by inventor Abel Gonzales Jr. at the 2006 State Fair of ...

and

deep-fried butter Deep-fried butter is a snack food made of butter coated with a Batter (cooking), batter or breading and then Deep frying, deep-fried. The dish has often been served at fair, fairs in the US; among them, the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Texas, t ...

. He has also been a judge on the television show ''Deep Fry Masters''.

Early life

The son of a

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United ...

restaurateur, Gonzales was born in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, in November 1969. In his youth he grew up working long hours around his father's restaurant, ''A. J. Gonzales’ Mexican Oven'' and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School where he was later inducted into their hall of fame in 2014.

State Fair of Texas

Since 2004, Gonzales has been entering into the Big Tex Choice Award contest, a contest for the most creative deep fried food, and has been a finalist every year except for 2014. He has won the contest five times in categories such as "best taste" and "most creative" with multiple deep fried inventions. In 2004, he won with the fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, in 2005 with Fried Coke, in 2006 with fried cookie dough, in 2008 with deep-fried butter, and in 2011 with Fried

Jambalaya Jambalaya ( , ) is an American Creole and Cajun rice dish of French (especially Provençal cuisine), African, and Spanish influence, consisting mainly of meat and vegetables mixed with rice. Ingredients Traditionally, the meat includes sa ...

. Other finalist inventions have included chicken-fried cactus bites, jelly and banana sandwiches, and deep fried pineapple rings.

Career

Gonzales worked as a database analyst before quitting his job in 2009 to work selling his deep fried foods at the Texas state fair. This allows him to spend the rest of the year traveling and experimenting with new forms of deep fried foods. He has also been hired previously by a beer distribution company to create a variant of deep fried beer. In 2014 he became a judge on the deep fried themed cooking show ''Deep Fry Masters''. In 2017, Gonzales opened a Dallas restaurant called ''Republic Ranch'' which featured "a blending of Mexican food and barbecue". It featured tacos with fillings such as ribeye and pulled pork as well as fried chicken and

brisket Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectora ...

. Gonzales left ''Ranch Republic'' in 2018 and the following year opened a New York-style Italian cuisine restaurant called ''Cocina Italiano'' in Dallas. It focuses on low cost pastas, sandwiches, and salads similar to food he encountered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzales, Abel Living people 1969 births Chefs from Texas Deep fried foods Woodrow Wilson High School (Dallas) alumni