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

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