Yesterday, the Austin Food & Wine Festival announced the finalized schedule for the 2013 festival, which takes place April 26-28 at Auditorium Shores.

The culinary event features a plethora of seminars including Drinking Vinegars & Shrubs, Classic Desserts in a Modern Kitchen, Qui Ingredients, It’s Tailgate Time In Texas, and numerous others. The Festival’s Facebook page also announced the addition of three celebrity chefs to the talent lineup: Graham Elliot, Brian Malarkey, and Barton Seaver.

Tickets to the AF&W Festival are $850 for the Savor Pass – which includes the Taste of Texas Kickoff Event, the Rock Your Taco Showdown, and a myriad of VIP perks – or $250 for the Taste Pass, which includes the option to purchase individual tickets to the Taste of Texas Kickoff and/or Rock Your Taco Showdown.

For more information, visit the Austin Food & Wine Festival’s website.

Tagged: Auditorium Shores, austin, Austin Food & Wine Festival, Barton Seaver, Brian Malarkey, Graham Elliot, Layne Lynch, Rock Your Taco Showdown, Taste of Texas Kickoff

Last week, we reported that Tim Dornon, chef de cuisine of Uchiko, was leaving the Uchi establishment to join Paul Qui’s newest restaurant, QUI, as a chef consultant.

Just a day after the news broke, Philip Speer, culinary director of Uchi, revealed to Eater Houston that Page Pressley, sous chef of Uchi Houston, would be taking over Dornon’s former position.

No word on the exact details of Pressley’s newest role, but Speer revealed to Eater that he is “being groomed for bigger things in the future.”

Tagged: Layne Lynch, Page Pressley, Qui, Tim Dornon, uchi, uchiko

Tim Dornon, chef de cuisine at Uchiko, is jumping ship and joining the team at QUI, the 55-seat, flagship restaurant from Top Chef Texas winner Paul Qui.

According to a press release, Dornon will work as a chef consultant at the restaurant. Qui and Dornon worked closely with each other at Uchiko before Qui left the restaurant in 2012 to pursue his own restaurant ventures. When QUI opens, Dornon and Qui will collaborate on the restaurant’s menu, food execution, and day-to-day operations.

“I think Tim is one of the most talented, yet unrecognized chefs in the city. It’s my honor to work with him,” Qui said in a press release. “He provides a great balance to my madness.”

Tagged: Layne Lynch, Paul Qui, Qui, Tim Dornon, uchi, uchiko

A myriad of Texas artisans and culinary businesses were recognized at the Good Food Awards Ceremony in San Francisco this weekend. The ceremony was hosted by well-known food activist Alice Waters.

In the beer category, both Independence Brewing Co.‘s Convict Hill Stout and Jester King Craft Brewery‘s Boxer’s Revenge were honored. In the coffee category, Cuvee Coffee‘s El Molino Witness Project was recognized. In the pickle category, Aunt Nita’s Homestyle Foods‘ Sweet Jalapeño Relish and Pogue Mahone Pickles’ Jalapeño Mint were honored. In the preserves category, Flume Creek Preserves‘ Raspberry Preserves was awarded. Texas did not take home awards in the spirits, confections, chocolate, or cheese categories. For the full list of winners, see this link.

Tagged: Aunt Nita's Homestyle Foods, Cuvée Coffee, Good Food Awards, Independence Brewing Co., Jester King Craft Brewery, Layne Lynch, Pogue Mahone Pickles

Yesterday, The New York Times featured a story on a new breed of bars popping up around the United States: charitable bars. The newspaper noted that a “new generation of beer halls dedicated to something beyond the cash register is cropping up around the nation and the world, with proceeds going not into an owner’s wallet but to charity…”

One of the philanthropic bars mentioned in the story included the Original OKRA Charity Saloon, which opened in Houston last month. Every month, the bar allows patrons to vote which Houston-based charity should receive the bar’s proceeds from that month.

Though the newspaper article encouraged patrons to question the true charitable nature of these up-and-coming bars, the Original OKRA Charity Saloon took to Facebook this morning to clarify that the beer house is a 501(c)(6) Not-For-Profit Corporation, and that it “really [does] give 100% of [its] profits to charity after paying for all standard bar costs – product, employee wages, rent, etc.”

Tagged: bars, Houston, Layne Lynch, OKRA Charity Saloon, The New York TImes

People from the spirits/brew world will descend upon Alamo City this weekend to discuss, serve, and celebrate a myriad of boozy beverages at the 2^nd Annual San Antonio Cocktail Conference. TEXAS MONTHLY’s own Pat Sharpe will be judging the conference’s Original Cocktail Competition from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at the St. Anthony Hotel today.

Image courtesy of the San Antonio Cocktail Conference

According to the Conference’s website, “each contestant [at the Original Cocktail Competition] will have ten minutes to make a cocktail for the guest judges from their own original recipe… using one or more of the following William Grant & Sons spirits: Hendrick’s Gin, Reyka Vodka, Gibson’s Canadian Whisky, Hudson Whiskey (Hudson Baby Bourbon), Milagro Tequila, Lillet (Blanc, Rouge and Rose), Sailor Jerry, Monkey Shoulder, Tullamore Dew and Solerno.”

Other individuals joining Sharpe on the judging panel include Dale DeGroff, author of The Craft of the Cocktail; Audrey Saunders, owner of Pegu Club in New York City; Michael Madrusan, owner and operator of The Everleigh in Melbourne, Australia; and Ron Bechtol, food, wine, and spirits writer at the San Antonio Current.

Tickets can be purchased at the door, and proceeds from the four-day event will benefit HeartGift, a group that provides life-saving heart surgery to children in developing countries around the world.

Tagged: cocktails, Layne Lynch, Original Cocktail Competition, pat sharpe, san antonio, San Antonio Cocktail Conference, Spirits, Texas Spirits

Paul Qui

Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival is embracing a much more prominent culinary element this year with SouthBites, a curated line-up of gourmet food trucks and trailers. Paul Qui, executive chef/owner of East Side King and the yet-to-be-opened Qui, is in charge of orchestrating the new event.

According to the SXSW website, “SouthBites is operating for all nine days of SXSW (March 8-16), open to the public and located right across the road from the Austin Convention Center. It will be an essential destination for thousands of hungry music, film, and interactive fans and industry players.”

“SXSW has always been an innovator in music, film, and technology, and I’m excited about being part of the food aspect,” Qui told TEXAS MONTHLY. Details are still being pieced together, and Qui said that the food truck/trailer line-up hasn’t been finalized quite yet.

Tagged: austin, food trailers, food trucks, Layne Lynch, Paul Qui, SouthBites, SXSW

As if buying a Texas town wasn’t enough, restaurateur Doug Guller is at it again. The hospitality mogul plans to open Chicago House, a craft beer-focused bar, on January 23 at 607 Trinity Street in Austin.

Doug Guller

According to the press release, “The bar will feature an extensive collection of craft beers and will be a premier destination for a choice micro-brew on the most popular street in Austin. The space at 609 Trinity Street, home to Flashpoint Recording Studio since 1989, will be renovated into a comfortable lounge with a rooftop overlooking Sixth Street.”

“We’re excited about bringing this concept to the East 6th Street neighborhood,” Guller told TEXAS MONTHLY. “We’ve restored a beautiful, historic building on Trinity Street that captures the feel of an American craft ale house. We’ll have two cask ales, along with 18 other unique offerings from all over the U.S. We’ll be introducing new beers weekly, maybe even some daily!”

Tagged: austin, Chicago House, Doug Guller, Layne Lynch

If there is anybody that knows Houston food it’s Erin Hicks, a Houston cookbook author. Her four books  – Houston Classic Desserts, Houston Classic Seafood, Houston Classic Mexican Recipes, and Houston Small Plates & Sips – take readers on a tour of the creative and ethnically diverse Houston culinary scene. Erin’s newest book, Houston Small Plates & Sips, came out late last year and is gaining rave reviews from critics.

Erin talked with TEXAS MONTHLY about her cookbooks, working with chefs, and why she focuses her attention specifically on H-town’s culinary scene.

I don’t see many city-centric cookbooks. Tell me how you got your start with these books. It began with Houston Classic Desserts, right?

Houston Classic Desserts was the first one. It’s kind of a crazy story actually. Before I got into writing cookbooks, I had an interior decorating and design business. Seven years ago, I put my house on the market and one day the alarm was set off during a showing. When I came home to turn it off, I met Linda Ellerbee and her best friend Kit Wohl from New Orleans, who is also a cookbook author. We became fast friends and I helped Kit through the years from time to time. On a photo shoot with Thomas Keller in Napa three years ago she said, “You take great photos. You love to cook. You should definitely do cookbooks,” and it sparked the idea. I had planned to do desserts, seafood, and it’s just gone from there. I owned and operated a restaurant in Corpus Christi from 1991-98, and it was truly the hardest work I ever did in my life. It was tough, and coming from that background, I have the utmost admiration and respect for everyone that works in this business.

What inspired you to go into the restaurant business at that time?

Like a lot of people, I grew up cooking with both my grandmothers, but the real reason why I went into restaurant cooking was because I unexpectedly found myself as a silent partner in a restaurant in the early nineties. It was only because my husband was a partner in the business. The people that ran the restaurant lived on my rental property across the street from me, but they never paid their rent, so I had to evict them. One day I talked to them and said, “Look, I’ll run the restaurant.” I have been in business for myself ever since I was twenty-one, so I thought I would do just fine at it. Running the restaurant was fun and a key to a bar in your twenties is awesome, but I mainly worked the front of the house at the restaurant. I started studying the restaurant’s recipes and learned how I could bring more recipes into the Mexican restaurant from things I was reading in magazines and books.

Take me through the genesis of your new book, Houston Small Plates & Sips.

I love to go to a restaurant, sit at the bar, and enjoy a few small plates with friends. I have a serious order-envy problem, meaning that I always regret what I order whenever I just get one entree, since everything on the menu almost always sounds so amazing. I clearly have a problem of never being able to decide what I truly want to eat, and the whole small plates movement is great because it allows you to have a few bites of a lot of different foods. To me, that’s much more preferable than ordering one huge entree. In regards to the sips part of the book, wine pairings have been around forever, but the craft beer dinners and cocktail pairings have just recently become popular. I wanted to draw attention to that new trend!

I was wondering if you would tell me how the collaboration process with restaurants works. Do chefs and restaurant owners willingly hand over their personal recipes?

I get asked this all the time. The truth is I just ask the restaurant nicely. I don’t charge the restaurant anything to be featured in my book, and it’s a great advertisement for them. There have been a few times when a recipe will come in and I’ll notice the chef has neglected to include an ingredient or something seems a little off, so I have to test the recipes. I test them again and again until it tastes just right. I also go in for tastings at the restaurants to make sure I’m on the right track, but for most of them, they are absolutely delighted to be featured. There has only been one restaurant in town I haven’t been able to get anything out of yet, but I have a feeling if I could meet with the chef that would definitely change.

If you get a recipe that’s seems to be missing something is your palate able to know right off the bat what that ingredient is?

I don’t have a hard time with it. Just in case my palate isn’t sophisticated enough, I always take a friend with me to tastings. I have them taste whatever I make as well. Once I get the recipes in from the chefs, I get back to them and start asking questions. I’m pretty good at looking at recipes and being able to tell whether something doesn’t seem right. I also Google the same type of recipe and see if something pops up. I like to talk to other chefs and ask them questions too. It’s not that hard to get it right.

Why Houston? Why focus your book on this city?

The culinary scene in Houston is like taking a trip around the world without leaving town. There are great fine-dining restaurants, but there are also little hole in the wall restaurants all over town. Our culinary scene is super diverse and I think we’re beginning to rival a lot of the larger culinary cities in America.

Tagged: Erin Hicks-Miller, Houston, Houston Small Plates & Sips, Layne Lynch

In case you haven’t heard, Feast, Houston’s first notable snout-to-tail restaurant,  announced it will close its doors for good in August 2013 after their five-year lease comes to an end. The shocking shutter announcement came via Twitter last week: “So the bad news is we’re closing in 9 months but the good news is you have 9 months to come eat at Feast! Thanks for all of your support.”

In July 2008, Pat Sharpe selected Feast as Pat’s Pick, and had this to say about the restaurant: “Given the amount of cajoling it takes for most people to even try organ meats, why would restaurant owners go to so much trouble? Because they think it’s important. Richard and James are big proponents of ‘nose to tail’ eating. This is a notion popularized by their highly regarded compatriot Fergus Henderson, of St. John, in London, who advocates using every part of an animal, inside and out. But in the end, while it’s fun to dine on the edge and admirable to be a conscientious carnivore, the main reason to go to Feast is for the flavors. Yes, you will be part of something significant, but mainly, you’ll eat very well.”

So why is the restaurant closing its doors? “There were not enough people coming through the doors on a regular basis,” James Silk, co-owner of Feast, admitted to the Houston Chronicle.

Feast received numerous accolades through the years, recognized by Bon Appétit, Texas Monthly, The New York Times, and even the James Beard Foundation. The restaurant was a pioneer in the snout-to-tail movement that has since taken over the Houston culinary scene. Restaurants like Underbelly and Oxheart have followed in their footsteps. The restaurant will be sorely missed.

Tagged: Feast, Houston, Layne Lynch, Oxheart, snout-to-tail, Underbelly