Big names in Texas chef circles will be starring at three events this week as part of the annual convention of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, in Austin.  The general public can attend this trio of events (which are some of the best of the convention); the rest of the seminars are open only to IACP members. There’s still time to buy tickets:

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 8-10:30 p.m.  At the Hotel Saint Cecilia. Tyson Cole, recent co-winner of the James Beard Foundation award as Best Chef Southwest and chef-owner of Uchi and Uchiko restaurants, will showcase creating tasty food from healthy ingredients at the “Three Hot Chefs” event. Other chefs are Holly Smith, chef at Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, Washington; and Brad Farmerie, executive chef of the James Beard-awarded restaurant Public in New York City. Go to TheCulinaryTrust,org to buy tickets. $135.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 7-10 p.m. David Garrido, chef-owner of Garrido’s in Austin, is competing against four other Texas chefs at the “Edible Austin Wine Food Match,” a dinner combining Texas wines with compatible foods. It benefits the Texas Center for Wine and Culinary Arts.  Other competitors are from Hudson’s on the Bend in Austin; Bin 555 [pictured] in San Antonio; and Garrido’s in Austin. Go to EdibleAustin.com and scroll down to buy tickets. $100.

SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 6-9 p.m. Hoover Alexander, of Hoover’s Cooking in Austin, Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due, and Lou Lambert and Larry McGuire of Lamberts Downtown Barbecue are cooking up Texas barbecue specialties at the “Up In Smoke” grand finale tasting. It’s co-sponsored by Foodways Texas, a new grassroots organization dedicated to studying Texas’s food culture, past and present. Go to the IACP website and scroll down to buy tickets. $65.

For years, trailers were the ugly ducking of the culinary scene, with spotty service, slim variety, and the constant specter of food poisoning. Enter a new era, the age of the concept truck, when innovative chefs, cooks, and just plain ordinary folks started opening up quirky, fun food trailers to serve their community. I should know. Over the past 50 weeks, I’ve crisscrossed the corridors of Central Texas (and some of the rest of the state), forking down french fries, scarfing sliders, and feasting on Asian fusion to bring you honest reviews of the best and worst (and many mediocre) food trucks.

So today is a special day. Today marks the fiftieth post of Trailer Thursday! It’s been a long time since the inaugural sushi trailer kickoff post.

To celebrate, I thought we should visit a swan on the scene: Odd Duck Farm to Trailer. One of the most innovative, interesting, and delicious spots I’ve been to, Bryce Gilmore’s mobile station has been using local, sustainable ingredients (and a wood-firing oven!) to create a rotating array of small plates since 2009. But y’all are trendy. You’ve likely already visited this belle of the ball more than once, not to mention frequented Gilmore’s hot new brick-and-mortar venture, Barley Swine, on South Lamar. Indeed, the chef was featured in April’s Food & Wine magazine as one of the ten best new chefs in the country, and it’s a challenge to squeeze into Barley Swine’s packed premises or even order at Odd Duck before it sells out of its most popular items each night.

Fortunately for me, on the sweltering evening that I revisited, the kitchen was just firing up. And oh, what a treat. First was a flavorful quail breast, grilled to perfection with just a hint of smokiness, sided with crisp-grilled green beans, and topped with a shishito pepper. One of the things I love about Odd Duck is the presentation. Sure, you might be eating out of styrofoam, but it’s still going to look damn good. Another example: the vegetarian entrée, with grilled zucchini and yellow squash, hints of fresh lettuce, plump texmati rice, and melty gruyere with a sherry onion vinegar. The crimson diced tomatoes on top added the final summer touch.

Though the homestead Parmesan grits and lamb shank was hardly the prettiest dish of the evening, it was certainly my favorite. Smoky, pulled lamb in the center of a hearty round of custard-yellow grits, with crispy grilled broccoli florets and plenty of Parmesan: How can you beat that?

Odd Duck tried its hardest with a beautifully constructed Richardson Farms pork belly slider. The tiny sweet bun was buttered and grilled to perfection and the pork belly had a nice crust and texture, but unfortunately, it was too fatty and tasteless. Even the pink homemade sauerkraut and aioli couldn’t save the slider from its bland fate. Too bad, especially considering that it’s a staple on the menu.

I preferred the venison sausage on a nicely grilled baguette, with a shishito pepper, a dollop of aioli, and a pickle spear on top. Nothing ground-breaking here, but good eating nonetheless. The same could be said for the expertly done roasted beet salad, with tender beet cubes, roasted cauliflower, and heaps of feta in a light champagne vinegar.

So go discover Odd Duck’s exceptional fare all over again. Surrounded by so much satisfying savory food, you won’t even notice the scorching summer heat that’s now upon us. And just think, you might even make it out of the trailer park without overindulging on one of Gourdough’s donuts.

1219 S. Lamar (512-550-5766). Open Tue–Sat 5:30–10.

Posted by Megan Giller

Tagged: Barley Swine, Bryce Gilmore, Odd Duck Farm to Trailer, Trailer Thursday

For years now, I’ve been trying to grow my own strawberries. And year after year, it’s a disappointing “harvest” of one or two small bites of tart berries. In fact, this year, my niece and I ogled two berries on the vine. I told her she could have one, and I could have one. She chose the large one and I was left with the dime-sized one. Though she didn’t come out too far ahead; hers was only the size of a nickel! It happens to me every time: they start with such promise, boasting bright green leaves and even a few strong flowers at the nursery. I bring them home, plant them in a hanging basket, and watch them shrivel up and die seemingly before my eyes. So, I’ve decided: if you can’t grow ‘em. . . Buy ‘em.

Lucky for me, berry season is in full swing here in Texas. And while, at times in my life, I have spent full days in the kitchen making old-fashioned jams and canning pint after pint until the kitchen can hold no more, there are other times (and maybe you can relate) when I’d like the satisfaction of a homemade jam with none of the work. Too much to ask?

There is a way—an easy, quick, and fool-proof way—to make this happen. Two words: Freezer Jam.

Purists may scoff (though I don’t know why; perhaps because they’d rather spend hours upon hours in the kitchen over a hot stove?), but freezer jam doesn’t use any strange ingredients or magic tricks. It’s just a different way of going about preserving fruits. Last year, when I bought six pints of organic blackberries on sale and brought them home to my new (unpacked) kitchen, freezer jam was just the thing I needed. Leave that giant canning stock pot in the garage and try it the easy way.

Here’s the best part: since it’s berry-pickin’ season in Texas, find your nearest pick-’em-yourself farm and come home with a bounty of local berries. Then, follow one of these simple recipes for making a small batch of quick jam. Don’t forget to sneak a few berries for the chef.

• How to Make Freezer Jam
• Homemade Strawberry Freezer Jam (made with honey instead of sugar)
• 20 Homemade Freezer Jam Recipes

Just as I was headed out the door on Saturday morning, Philip Speer (right) let drop the most interesting tidbit of the whole morning’s entertainment: “It would be fun to do this on a citywide scale,” said the executive pastry chef for Austin’s Uchi and Uchiko.

We were at Uchiko at around 11 a.m., where a contest among four young Uchiko and Uchi employees had just wrapped up. It was modeled on the TV show “Chopped” (airs Tuesdays at 9 Central on the Food Network). These four were the finalists. They had won successive rounds in an internal contest that started with 36 employees from both restaurants. After each round, the low-scoring contestant was “chopped,” i.e., sent packing.  The judges were–gulp–the three bosses: chefs Paul Qui, Tyson Cole, and Philip Speer (pictured). This morning was the final elimination–no pressure there.

As the audience composed of media people and bloggers ate breakfast tacos and swilled coffee, we watched the earnest contestants mince and blend and sweat and obsess. Wow, we all thought, I’m glad all I have to do is write for a living.

Now Speer was saying that Uchi and Uchiko might see if they can take the contest to the next level. He was just speculating, of course, but if they could draw from a broad talent pool—get name chefs like David Bull of Congress and Second and Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine, who was recently named one of Food & Wine magazine’s top-ten best new chefs in the country—the contest could have broad public appeal.  I don’t know about you, but I’d go see it. And I’d pay, particularly if a charity was the beneficiary, as on the TV show. Well, we shall see.

In the meantime, the lucky winner of the Uchi/Uchiko contest was 24-year-old Kyle Bentley, who looks about 14 and was refreshingly un-impressed with himself. The kid’s good. He had been an intern at Alinea in Chicago—the highly regarded and very experimental restaurant—when Uchi chef-owner Tyson Cole stole him away to help open Uchiko nine months ago. The other day Alinea chef-partner Grant Achatz contacted Bentley and asked him to come back, this time for real wages. It’s nice to be wanted.     (Photo courtesy Jessica Dupuy)

Look out, Lucky’s Puccias. Enoteca, Vespaio—you’d be wise to watch your step as well, brick and mortar though you may be. There’s a new Italian trailer in Austin that can juggle circles around you. And by circles, I mean the perfect fried risotto orbs (said to resemble oranges) called arancini at the eponymously named trailer, Arancini.

Let’s start there, with three big, deep-fried risotto balls. With fat rice, peas, slivers of prosciutto, and melty mozzarella, these traditional Sicilian street-food delicacies tasted divine (though they didn’t need the Chef Boyardee tomato dipping sauce on the side). It was hard to decide which was my favorite, the arancini or the meatball slider. The spiced meat in the slider was stuffed with mozzarella and grilled to crispness on the border, packed all around with a tomatoey beef-and-carrot stew concoction, and delivered on a grilled, olive-oil-buttered bun. The stew fell off onto the plate almost as soon as I picked up the slider, but it was quickly devoured, as was the sandwich.

After such decadence, I thought I’d pay penance with the fried brussels sprouts, but these turned out to steal the show. Crisp on the outside and butter-tender on the inside, they were served in a zesty lemon vinaigrette with plenty of capers. Addictive, light, and healthy, the brussels disappeared in a matter of minutes. Same went for the flatbread with shrimp and arugula—three hearty pieces of grilled flatbread with baby arugula in a light dressing with shaved Parmesan and a few flavorful, breaded baby shrimp on top (truthfully, I would have liked to have seen more shrimp).

Ironically, the only flat note was the round rigatoni with house-made ricotta and tomato sauce. The ricotta was smooth if a little bland, and the tomato sauce and rigatoni had a strange aftertaste. The dish was topped with chopped Italian parsley but could have used some garlic or fresh basil to jazz it up.

Arancini’s dessert, though, was pitch-perfect. They generally rotate sweets, and this week it was rich, buttery French toast stuffed with Nutella and grilled bananas and topped with crushed hazelnuts. The dish was so decadent, I’d order it any day over Dough’s amazing Nutella panini, in San Antonio.

So maybe I should extend that warning offered above. To Italian restaurants all across Texas: Better watch your ovens and open flames. Arancini has arrived.

SoFi Food Court, 601 W. Live Oak (512-284-8865). Dinner only. Tue–Thur 5–9, Fri & Sat 5–10.

Posted by Megan Giller

Tagged: Arancini, Italian food, Trailer Thursday

I didn’t get around to Central Market until four days after their big “Pasaporte España”—“Passport Spain”—extravaganza had started. I’m kicking myself, because I’ve already missed a Spanish wine tasting and a couple of classes that sounded really good. But last Saturday I did stumble on the paella man, who was making huge flat pans of the yummy rice-y, seafood-y, saffron-y stuff outside on the deck of the north Austin store. So on a whim I ponied up $8.95, as I recall, and got a plateful. For the price, it was a great value! I sat under the oak trees at my neighborhood Central Market on N. Lamar, in Austin, and devoured two huge shrimp (they are whole, so be advised: you gotta rip off their heads and legs), a mussel or two, wonderfully seasoned rice, chicken, and sausage (with just a hint of saffron, the way I like it). Señor Paella does lunch and dinner daily, with a break in between. The Spain-related festivities and classes go on until Tuesday, May 24, with the likes of a Spanish olive oil tasting, winemaker dinner, cooking classes in Spanish tapas and desserts, live flamenco music on the deck, and more. Check the web site for schedules at the stores across Texas.

After 26 years of showcasing the Texas Hill Country as one of the most desirable destinations in the Lone Star state, the Texas famed Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival will don a new name, a new home, and new leadership for the next festival in the spring of 2012. The new Austin Food & Wine Festival will now be a part of the nationwide culinary series by acclaimed Food & Wine magazine and will be produced by C3 Presents (of Austin City Limits Music Festival fame) along with Texas culinary juggernauts Tyson Cole (Uchi/Uchiko, Austin), Tim Love (Lonesome Dove Bistro, Fort Worth), and Jesse Herman (La Condesa, Austin).

Recent James Beard award winner Tyson Cole, chef/owner of Uchi and Uchiko has spearheaded the renewed festival concept for the past year. “I’m proud to the lead the way in bringing Austin’s culinary landscape into the national spotlight with the creation of the Austin Food & Wine Festival,” says Cole. “It’s the next step in a city coming into it’s own in the food world, and I’m excited to use this as a vehicle to feature a wide array of talent our city has to offer.”

Most “foodie-philes” are aware of the celebrity-studded Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, which draws the likes of high profile chefs as James Beard award-winning José Andrés, Tom Colicchio, Mario Batali, John Besh, and Thomas Keller. This new event will build on the national brand that Food & Wine magazine has bestowed on Aspen but with a decidedly Tex-ified style.

“We really wanted to be a part of creating something that is representative of the changing food scene in Austin as well as the rest of Texas,” says La Condesa owner Jesse Herman who will work with C3 Presents, Cole and Love to leverage local and national contacts to create a well rounded showcase of Texas food and wine culture. “We really want to create a food and wine festival that is on par with the greatness of the ACL Festival and South by Southwest.”

The architects behind the original Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival will now restructure the organization to become a 501c3 nonprofit extension of the Austin Food & Wine Festival that will be the festival’s charitable arm and will receive annual support as a beneficiary to the festival’s success.

“This is a huge endorsement of the many years of work and commitment that has gone into the previous festival and we’re excited to support the new Austin Food & Wine Festival, which will bring Austin’s food and wine community in the national and international spotlight,” says Cathy Cochran-Lewis, President of the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival whose leadership in 2011 brought the festival its most profitable year to date, a coup which will give the new nonprofit arm a firm foundation with which to promote the food and wine culture in Central Texas. “This opportunity aligns with the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival’s original mission to create a platform and awareness of the outstanding chefs, restaurants, artisan producers, wines and spirits that makeup our unique culinary culture.”

The changeover not only marks a significant boon for the city of Austin as a premier culinary and viticultural destination, but for all of Texas. And with an ever increasing number of James Beard Award nominees, Food & Wine magazine Best New Chefs, and chef contestants on national food competition television shows, the event will garner national recognition for the Capital City not only as the Live Music Capital of the World, but as a culinary force to be reckoned with.

The official announcement of the new Austin Food & Wine Festival was made today by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell at an event held at Jesse Herman’s Malverde bar. The 2012 Austin Food & Wine Festival is scheduled for March 30 – April 1. Stay tuned for details as the event planning unfolds!

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Austin Food and Wine Festival, C3 Presents, Cathy Cochran-Lewis, Jesse Herman, Jessica Dupuy, Texas Hill Country Food and Wine Festival, Tim Love, Tyson Cole

This smuggled bologna won't be making its way into any sandwiches. Photo Courtesy U.S. Customs & Border Protection

Last Friday U.S. Customs agents seized 35 rolls of Mexican bologna—nearly 400 pounds of the pork-based meat product—at the Santa Teresa border crossing, located 20 miles west of downtown El Paso. A 33-year-old resident of Ciudad Juarez had told customs agents he had nothing to declare, but had in fact squirreled away the bologna rolls behind the seat of his 2003 Dodge Ram pickup. Albuquerque’s KOAT News determined that the bologna could make 400 sandwiches, giving it a “street value” of $2,700 dollars.  This is the second-largest seizure of bologna in the El Paso area ever recorded. The largest occurred at the El Paso crossing in November 2003, when 756 pounds of the meat product were confiscated.

Importing bologna is prohibited because it could potentially introduce “foreign animal diseases in the U.S. pork industry,” Grace Gomez, Santa Teresa Port Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in a news release. “Chimex bologna manufactured in Mexico has been found to foster hog cholera, also known as classical swine fever (CSF), and is a prohibited item under the Federal Meat Inspection Act,” a document from the USDA Office of Criminal Investigations said.

This is, of course, the second illicit meat seizure at the border that has come to our attention this year. On Feb. 27, U.S. Customs and Border protection found 58 pounds of undeclared iguana meat mixed with masa in two ice chests on a bus crossing into Laredo. That haul was valued at $1,560. “This is a substantial amount of iguana meat, well beyond what would be considered as personal use,” Joe Uribe, Acting CBP Port Director, Laredo, said at the time.—Sonia Smith.

The Beat Divas—the celebrated Austin female vocal trio that warbles while it works—has filmed its first video. To celebrate the occasion, they’re having another of their hallmark cooking-singing classes (they sing, not the students), on Saturday, June 18, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Central Market Austin, north location. It’s $50 and includes not just dinner, wine, and the cooking demo but also entertainment courtesy of the Divas (Mady Kaye, Dianne Donovan, and Beth Ullman). The culinary theme is Tomato Envy, with recipes for fried green tomatoes (with crème fraiche and basil), BLT salad, roasted-tomato tart, grilled-lemon-and-herb salmon with mango-tomato salsa, and white-chocolate–“strawberried” semifreddo. Watch for their CD release party on Sunday, June 26, on the upper deck of the north Austin Central Market, from 3 to 5:30. It’s entitled “Dishing with the Divas–Songs of Food, Love & Mayhem.”

We’ve already established that Vioginer is one of the white grapes that thrives in Texas soils. For a quick refresher, Viognier (pronounced Vee-on-yay), is a French Rhone Valley grape known for its floral and fruity aromas. From the nose, the Viognier is often perceived as a sweet wine, but is actually fairly dry—great for pairing with food.

In previous months, we’ve selected Viogniers from McPherson Cellars and Alamosa Wine Cellars, both excellent representations of how well this grape does in Texas. This month we’ve selected another Viognier with the help of sommelier Hunter Hammett, CSW of the Pyramid Restaurant & Bar at The Fairmont Dallas. Having earned his credentials as a Certified Sommelier, Hammett worked as floor sommelier for both the Mansion at Turtle Creek and Fearing’s, Ritz-Carlton before arriving at the Fairmont Dallas as Wine Director. His passion for wine and spirits won him recognition from Wine Spectator with an Award of Excellence for his wine program in 2010.

In addition to the many wine selections around the world Hammett has lately become a great fan of Texas wines.  “Texas wine quality has improved tremendously in the last 10 years,” says Hammett. “It’s been a great pleasure for me as a native Texan to introduce restaurant guests not only to talented Texas wine producers but also to varietals that are extremely food-friendly and greatly underrated.”

One such producer is Brennan Vineyards in Comanche, Texas whose 2009 Viognier has turned heads as one of the best in the state. “Owner Pat Brennan is a devoted artisan who is committed to producing award-winning wines,” says Hammett. “This wine has ripe peach, apricot, and honeysuckle aromas and just enough acidity to keep it lively. I was introduced to his wines several years ago as a judge for The Dallas Morning News and the Grapevine International Wine Competitions and I’ve been a fan ever since.”

For this reason, this month’s wine of the month is Brennan Vineyards Viognier, 2009. Since 2005, the Viognier has been Brennan Vineyards’ signature wine winning Best Texas White Wine in Lone Star International Wine Competitions and a Double Gold Medal at the Houston Rodeo with previous vintages. The 2009 Viognier won Gold Medals in the 2010 Indy International, the 2011 San Francisco Chronicle and the 2011 Dallas Morning News Wine Competitions.

For just under $20, this beautiful white wine is perfect for summer and would make the perfect housewarming gift for a dinner party. (You could even stack our three Wine of the Month Viognier selections against each other to see which one you prefer.) Though you can order directly from the winery website , you can also find the Brennan Viognier at a few specialty wine merchants as well as at Spec’s. (And of course, you can find this on the Pyramid Restaurant & Bar wine list.)

For Hammett, this particular Viognier is an example of the high quality of Texas wines being produced despite such harsh weather conditions throughout the year. “The erratic Texas climate is a constant challenge for winemakers who are producing quality-driven wines,” says Hammett. “But a wine like this is a testament to the dedicated efforts of such artisan wine producers committed to providing the best fruit from the lone star state.”

Winery: Brennan Vineyards, Viognier 2009

Price: ~$20

Availability: Winery, Spec’s, select wine merchants

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Alamosa Wine Cellars, Brennan Vineyards, Hunter Hammett, Jessica Dupuy, McPherson Cellars, Pyramid Fairmont Dallas, Texas Wine of the Month, Viognier