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The World Is Their 'Soft-Cooked' Cajun Oyster

By Dale Rice
American-Statesman Restaurant Critic
Friday, October 24, 2003

When physicians who worked with Brenda McGowan stop by Ms. B's, they frequently comment, "You jumped from one frying pan into another."

How true.

Photo by Kelly West/AA-S

Brenda, right, and Billy McGowan at their restaurant, with a bowl of garlic shrimp and oyster over pasta.

Five years ago, Brenda left a longtime nursing career to join her husband in the restaurant business. It was a career move that appears to make both of them serenely happy.

Billy McGowan, who dated Brenda for five years before marrying her 26 years ago, has always been in the food business.

After completing culinary school in New Orleans, he came to Austin to work as a private chef for a family. Later he joined the staff of the Fish Camp, which was owned by Jeffrey's partners, then branched out on his own in Pflugerville with McGowan's, a Cajun spot.

Meanwhile, Brenda obtained a master's degree from the University of Texas and began working at a local hospital. When Billy opened McGowan's, she frequently pitched in at the end of her nursing day.

On the side, she took cooking classes and eventually went to culinary school, too.

Together they launched Ms. B's, a small, neighborhood restaurant in Northwest Hills serving seafood, Cajun and Creole fare.

There, one of the dishes they created at home --after considerable experimentation and modification -- is a succulent pairing of garlic shrimp and oysters over spaghetti in a Creole broth.

It's those oysters that elevate the dish. The plump shellfish are "soft cooked," which gives them the taste and texture of raw oysters barely heated through.

The dish deserves the compliments it gets, and that praise is why Billy and Brenda stay in the restaurant business.

"The thing that blows me away," Brenda says, "is when somebody says, 'I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.' "

"The day can be a losing one and then one customer comes in and oohs and aahs," Billy says. "That carries you through that day, the next day and the rest of the week."

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