I first met Andrew Zimmern last fall at Whip In in Austin where the spirited television chef was filming his hit Travel Channel series, “Bizarre Foods.” Though Zimmern has traveled all over the world, he made it clear to me during his stop in Texas that Austin’s culinary scene evoked a certain quality he rarely ever saw in American cuisine. “The people of Austin really enjoy being experimented at,” Zimmern explained to me. “They redefine the meaning of bizarre food.”

Tonight, the Austin episode of Bizarre Foods premieres at 8 p.m. CT and features some Austin favorites, including Foreign & Domestic, Contigo, Lamberts, Barley Swine, Gourdoughs, Dai Due, and a number of other Austin spots. It seems like Rene Ortiz of La Condesa will also be featured on the episode as well, according to a post on Sway’s Facebook page which warns, “Spoiler alert: Rene might kill something [tonight].”

Bridget Dunlap with Andrew Zimmern

The host for Zimmern’s Austin visit is Rainey Street Queen Bridget Dunlap, owner of Lustre Pearl, Clive Bar, Bar 96, and the yet-to-be-opened Container Bar. ”Andrew and the crew are super badass! He was so fun, sweet, and down-to-earth,” Dunlap said of her experience with Zimmern. ”We all stayed out together until 12:30 a.m. and had a blast. He loves his job and the crew loves him…the whole experience was really amazing.”

Catch all the Austin bizarreness tonight on the Travel Channel!

Tagged: Andrew Zimmern, austin, Barley Swine, Bridget Dunlap, Contigo, Dai Due, Foreign and Domestic, la condesa, Lambert's, Layne Lynch, Rene Ortiz, Sway, Travel Channel, Whip In

Smoke was definitely in the air.

The quintessentially Texas aroma of smoked beef permeated the air at Live Fire! on Thursday evening at the Salt Lick Pavilion in Driftwood, outside Austin.
Billed as the kick-off event for the three-day Austin Wine & Food Festival coming up this weekend, Live Fire! was sponsored by the Austin Food & Wine Alliance. More than two dozen Central Texas chefs, with an outlier from Portland, Oregon, set up smokers and grills under towering pecan trees on the banks of Onion Creek while 650 attendees paid $75 each to stuff themselves silly, listen to music, swill adult beverages, and watch the amazing performers of Fire Knights, who twirled scary-looking flaming staffs with the ease of high school drum majors.
Meanwhile, the chefs cooked Texas beef up, down, and sideways.
There was smoked brisket from local barbecue hero Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue and tongue pastrami sandwiches from Ned Elliott of Foreign & Domestic. Andrew Wiseheart of Contigo changed his last name to “Beefheart” for the night; his booth served up, yes, cured beef heart with a chicory-and-strawberry salad.
Naomi Pomeroy of the appropriately named Beast, in Portland, went native with Texas wagyu medallions topped with wild-ramp butter.

Jason Dady did battle with maurauding flies.

Jason Dady of San Antonio, owner of Tre Trattoria and Bin 555, did slow-cooked charred beef brisket with blue-cheese spoonbread and a caramelized onion purée. He encountered a problem that plagued many booths: “I’ve been fighting flies all night,” he said, sounding exasperated. ”Maybe our food smelled better.”
Josh Watkins of the Carillon could not stop at just one. He did two dishes: beef ribs with corn pudding and also fried beef cheeks with Brussels sprouts brushed with smoked maple syrup. And just exactly how to you smoke a liquid? Turns out there are at least two ways, but the one that worked best was a no-brainer: put a pan of syrup in a smoker. Watkins also proved himself adept at juggling Myer lemons, to the amusement of onlookers.

The most dramatic entry of the evening was Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chef John Bullington’s whole steer, cooked over coals on a specially constructed Argentine-style grill. “We wired very large pieces of meat to the platform, and cooked them for about sixteen hours,” he said. “We turned it once. The beef alone weighed 407 ½ pounds and the metal rack was another 100. It took six guys to flip that sucker.”

Wagyu medallions with tomato-jam tarts.

After so much bovine protein, it was a relief to find a dessert. Erin Echternach, pastry chef at Fino, skewered fresh strawberries and squares of cake to make grilled strawberry shortcake. Her assistant Christiana Rachut volunteered that “Strawberries are the beef of the vegetable world.” Kyle McKinney of Barley Swine made sweet zucchini bread,  grilled and served with dabs of goat cheese mousse and candied walnuts. (Thankfully, neither barley nor swine was involved.)

(A version of this post will appear on TMDailyPost.com.) Photos by Courtney Bond.

Tagged: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Austin Wine & Food Festival, Barley Swine, Bin 555, Contigo, fino, Foreign & Domestic, Live Fire! Austin Food & Wine Alliance, Salt Lick Pavilion, the Carillon, Tre Trattoria

Uchi and Uchiko together swept the first annual Austin CultureMap Tastemaker Awards gala on Thursday night at the Driskill Hotel, taking three prizes out of seven. The two sibling restaurants won for best restaurant, best decor and atmosphere, and best pastry chef (Philip Speer). The crowd in attendance at the lively upstairs venue, with music blasting away, was composed of the usual Austin foodies, the restaurant, wine, and bar community, and a young, new, rather dazzled-looking contingent that caused the old-timers to mutter, “Who are these people?”
Other winners were David Bull of Congress for best chef (pictured), June Rodil of Congress for best wine and beverage service, and Chauncy James of East Side Showroom for best mixologist.
The winner of the “new restaurant challenge,” a people’s choice award, was Contigo.
The awards ceremony was preceded by the usual walk-around-and-eat-and-drink-till-you-drop affair, with very impressive food and drinkies presented mainly by the nominees; the Driskill Hotel’s executive chef Jonathan Gelman, befitting his role as host, pulled out all the stops with duck tamales with mole, charred corn, foie crema, and apple relish, tied up in teeny corn husks. Best Chef David Bull’s fabulous short ribs were no slouch either. For dessert, the Driskill passed a series of cordial-filled chocolates, which almost caused a stampede.
The winners were determined by a secret ballot of journalists and writers who cover food and drink in Austin, honorary chairs being chefs Robert Del Grande of RDG in Houston, and Andrew Weissman of Il Sogno and Sandbar in San Antonio. The awards were sponsored by CultureMap web site and will benefit the newly formed Austin Food & Wine Alliance, a new nonprofit organization that gives culinary-related grants. It will sponsor the tremendously popular Live Fire! cooking event featuring award-winning chefs on April 26 at the Salt Lick Pavilion, kicking off the Austin Wine & Food Festival.

Tagged: Chauncy James, Congress, Contigo, CultureMap, David Bull, East Side Show Room, June Rodil, Philip Speer, Tastemaker Awards, uchi, uchiko

Dining Room at Congress, Austin. (Photo Ryann Ford)

Starting in 2002, I have eaten my weight in lamb chops, roasted beets, pork belly, and micro-cilantro every year to come up with Texas Monthly’s annual list of the most innovative, exciting, and delicious new Texas restaurants. For 2012, our feature “Where to Eat Now” runs the gamut from a glittering, high-style dining room in downtown Austin to a causal sushi-and-sake bar in Fort Worth.

The full story can be found in the March issue and online. The top ten and runners-up are below.

Pumpkin cheesecake, Barley Swine. (Photo Jody Horton)

The number one slot was captured by Congress, a secluded enclave on the first floor of the swank Austonian condo tower. Since it opened on New Year’s Eve 2010, outfitted in icy crystal lights and cushy booths, Congress has become the city’s default location for special occasions of all types.

(Tip: Congress is also an excellent  choice if you forgot to send candy and flowers on Valentine’s.) Austinites will remember executive chef David Bull when he was a rookie making a name for himself at the Driskill Hotel a few years ago. Now (after a sojourn in Dallas) he’s back in town, at the top of his game.

The year just passed is notable for bringing several dining trends into sharper focus. Chief among them is what I call the offal truth, a.k.a. nose-to-tail eating. Locally sourced ingredients are also the rule these days. Pigs are big, which is observation about both their size and their popularity on menus.

Casual and small-plate dining are more prevalent than ever (several of the top ten choices have beer gardens and community tables). But fine dining is hardly on the way out (three spots are formal with a vengeance). As for culinary style, it’s all over the map: four of

Duck Three Ways, Marquee (Photo Kevin Marple)

the top places are American melting pot, two are classic French, two are Italian, one Indian, and one Japanese.

Here is the list, in order: 1. Congress, Austin. 2. Barley Swine, Austin. 3. Marquee, Dallas. 4. Coppa, Houston. 5. Philippe, Houston. 6. The Monterey, San Antonio. 7. Contigo, Austin. 8. Lucia, Dallas. 9. Pondicheri, Houston. 10. Shinjuku Station, Fort Worth.

The five runners-up (listed alphabetically by city) are Mesa Veracruz Coastal Cuisine, Dallas; Private Social, Dallas. Revolver Taco Lounge, Fort Worth. Feast, San Antonio; Restaurant Gwendolyn, San Antonio.

The restaurants in this year’s story opened between November 1, 2010, and November 1, 2011.

Tagged: Andrew Wiseheart, Anita Jaisinghani, Barley Swine, Ben Edgerton, Brandi Key, Bryce Gilmore, Chris Shepherd, Congress, Contigo, Coppa, David Bull, David Uygur, Erica Waksmunski, Feast, Indika, Jarry Ho, Jennifer Uygur, Lucia, Marquee Grill, Mesa Veracruz Coastal Cuisine, Michael Sohocki, Olga Reyes, Philippe restaurant, Philippe Schmit, Pondicheri, Private Social, Quealy Watson, Raul Reyes, Rebecca Meeker, Restaurant Gwendolyn, Revolver Taco Lounge, Robert Cain, Shinjuku Station, Stefan Bowers, the Monterey, Tiffany Derry, Tre Wilcox, Where to Eat Now 2012

There’s nothing like a bandwagon. No sooner did Food & Wine and Bon Appétit fall all over themselves to give Austin a whole lotta love than StarChefs.com (an online magazine for chefs and culinary insiders) decided to hold one of its four national awards ceremonies in Austin this year.  Their editorial board scoured the landscape for the top talent in Texas’ capital city (and in San Antonio, too) and recently announced more than a dozen winners in nine categories.

As a result, in February, a gaggle of the hottest chefs in Austin and San Antonio are going to be in one place at one time, offering samples of their best bites. And there will be some choice wine and cocktail sips too.

Here’s what you need to know: The tasting will be held on Tuesday, February 21, from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Driskill Hotel. Tickets are $85 for regular admission, $125 for VIP, and can be purchased online at starchefs.com/tickets or by calling 212-966-7575.

So, is StarChefs.com on the mark as far as their choices go? In my humble opinion, absolutely. They considered around 60 candidates (which they found through talking to local media and doing their own research, followed up by in-person tastings and interviews).

OK, it’s time to cut to the chase. Who won?

In the chefs category, it’s David Bull, Congress; Ned Elliott, Foreign & Domestic; Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue; Bryce Gilmore, Barley Swine; Rene Ortiz, La Condesa; Paul Qui, Uchiko; Quealy Watson, The Monterey, in San Antonio; Andrew Wiseheart, Contigo.

In the pastry chefs category, it’s Plinio Sandalio, Carillon; Philip Speer, Uchiko. In the sustainability chef category, it’s Michael Sohocki, Restaurant Gwendolyn, in San Antonio. In the hotel chef category, it’s Josh Watkins, Carillon. In the artisan category, it’s John Bates and Brandon Martinez, Noble Pig. In the restaurateurs category, Tyson Cole, the Uchi group; Jason Dady, Bin 555, Tre Trattoria, Two Bros. BBQ Market, all in San Antonio. In the sommelier category, it’s June Rodil, Congress. In the mixologist category, it’s Jeret Peña, The Esquire, in San Antonio.

The host chef is  Jonathan Gelman, Driskill Grill. (By the way, the photograph is from a StarChefs.com  gala held in New York last year.)

Tagged: Aaron Franklin, Andrew Wiseheart, austin, Barley Swine, Bin 555, Bon Appetit, Brandon Martinez, Bryce Gilmore, Carillon, Congress, Contigo, David Bull, driskill grill, Food & Wine, Foreign & Domestic, Franklin Barbecue, Jason Dady, Jeret Pena, John Bates, Johnathan Gelman, Josh Watkins, June Rodil, la condesa, Michael Sohocki, Ned Elliott, Noble Pig, Paul Qui, Philip Speer, Plinio Sandalio, Quealy Watson, Rene Ortiz, Restaurant Gwendolyn, san antonio, StarChefs.com, the Monterey, Tre Trattoria, Two Bros. BBQ Market, Tyson Cole, uchi, uchiko

Texas Tequila? Well, they make everything else in Texas including beer, wine, bourbon and vodka. Why not have a Texas tequila? At least that’s what Tom Nall, owner and CEO of Republic Tequila thought when he decided to take on the idea of a Texas tequila in 2008.

NOTE: By law, tequila can only be made in Mexico from blue agave plants raised in the state of Jalisco (and a few surrounding counties) in order to be called tequila. Republic Tequila is completely produced in Mexico, but the business operation is rooted in Austin.

Having retired to a Colorado ranch following a successful career in the food marketing industry—he’s the brains behind Wick Fowler’s 2 Alarm chili you see in just about every grocery store around—Nall wasn’t exactly seeking out a 2nd career in spirits, but when he was introduced to the idea of Republic Tequila from a few business colleagues, he couldn’t walk away. Especially once he met Ken MacKenzie, an expert in tequila from California who had spent a number of years in Mexico learning the art of tequila production and carving out a niche as a consultant to Mexican tequila companies who wanted to bring their spirits to the United States.

MacKenzie was eager to oversee the making of his own tequila from start to finish and a partnership with Nall was the ideal way to make that happen. The two traveled through Guadalajara looking for different distilleries who could be a base for production.

To put this in perspective, there are thousands of agave farms around Jalisco. The agave from these farms is purchased and often grown exclusively for different tequila makers large and small. The harvested agave is then sent to hundreds of different distilleries to begin tequila production. There are more than 100 distilleries making more than 900 brands of tequila in Mexico. Because there are only so many distilleries, multiple brands of tequila come from the same location.

After surveying a number of different distilleries and meeting with different agave farmers, Nall and MacKenzie stumbled on a master distiller named Sebastian Melendrez at La Quemada distillery. Melendrez was formerly the master distiller for Herradura, Nall’s favorite tequila, and his entire operation was based on producing 100% organic agave tequila. (A very time intensive and expensive endeavor that requires the fields to be certified that there are no herbicides or pesticides, and the distillery itself has to be certified to prove that there are no foreign cleaning agents, yeasts or accelerants.)

Nall immediately honed in on the unique rarity of a distillery like this.

“For us, this was the point of difference that I knew could set us apart from any other tequila in the States,” says Nall. “You have to have a point of difference that separates you from the other guys. The quality of the tequila that comes from this distillery is worlds apart from large production facilities.”

A fourth-generation agave grower, Melendrez harvests his agave at a maturity of 8 to 12 years and steams his harvest in traditional brick ovens for up to 72 hours before cooling and shredding the agave to extract the juice. The juice is then fermented with a natural strain of organic yeast for up to 8 days.

“We could easily add accelerates to the fermentation process like many other large production companies do, but it’s not natural. There’s nothing wrong with doing it, but we are bringing an artisan quality to our tequila by using completely natural methods,” says MacKenzie. “Some larger brands have to accelerate their process, they have a certain quantity to produce. But in the end it’s the difference between cooking with a microwave instead of cooking with a conventional oven. We believe the flavor comes through in the final product.”

The spirit is then distilled twice. Only twice.

“You see all sorts of labels on bottles that say the spirit has been distilled three times or four times, but that added heat just takes away from the key ingredient, the agave,” says MacKenzie. “If you distill it more than twice, you start to get the equivalent of nonfat milk in the final product, it just doesn’t have any complexity.”

Once the tequila has been distilled, it is then rested for 3-5 days before it is bottled. This lets it aerate and take on a smoother quality that you can immediately distinguish in the “plata” or silver version of Republic Tequila. The production also includes a portion of the spirits aged in organic Jack Daniels oak barrels for 8 months for the Reposado—with smooth, vanilla notes—and 20 months for the Añejo —with nutty, smoky flavors.

The idea is that you can drink any one of these tequilas on its own, as opposed to blending it up in a sugary-sweet margarita. (Though you can certainly do that too.)

“Unfortunately, Americans have a phobia about tequila because we drank bad tequila when we were young and regretted it the next day,” says MacKenzie. “But that’s not how it is in Mexico. With Republic Tequila, we’re trying to show that tequila is an epicurean product, almost more so than Cognac because of all the flavor characteristics brought out by agave that’s more than ten years old. Think about the terroir that melds into the plant over that time, and the great care we take to make it.”

Indeed, as MacKenzie suggests, there’s a lot more to tequila than that one ounce shot (or two) your friends pressured you into in college, and when you sample each of tequilas from Republic, you can taste the difference.

Republic Tequila exploded onto the Texas market in 2009 finding spots on retail, restaurant and bar shelves all across the state. And it’s also sold in six other states. You can easily spot it by the distinct Texas-shaped glass bottles. And if you ask bartender at anyone of the hip new bars in your town, they’ll likely come up with something creative to show off just how nice this tequila is. Houston Eaves of Austin’s Contigo restaurant, is a big Republic fan.

“I like how well made this tequila is,” says Eaves. “You can tell how much effort is put into making it. It’s light, smooth and has a great vegetal agave quality to it.”

As an experiment, Eaves played on the smooth characteristics of Republic’s Reposado and aged it for 25 days in a 4-liter oak barrel with vermouth (Cocchi Vermouth di Terino and Dolin Vermouth de Chambery Rouge) with the intent of making a tequila-based Manhattan. He released the aged spirit in the form of a “Republic of Contigo” cocktail last month and quickly sold out of the velvety smooth beverage in a matter of a couple of weeks.

“We didn’t have a lot to work with since it was just an experiment, but it was a great way to show people how great a tequila can be in a cocktail when you use ingredients to really make that spirit shine. Republic’s Reposado makes it really easy to do that.” says Eaves.

Republic of Contigo

3 ounces Republic Tequila Reposado/Vermouth blended and aged spirit (Or 2 ounces Republic Tequila, 1 ounce Sweet Vermouth – Cocchi Vermouth di Terino or Dolin Vermouth de Chambery Rouge

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir in mixing glass and serve up with a grapefruit twist.

- Jessica Dupuy

Tagged: Contigo, Houston Eaves, Jessica Dupuy, Ken MacKenzie, Republic Tequila, Tom Nall