Austin is the place for food right now. The city is bursting with culinary talent — some new and some old — and it is a marvelous time to be in the Capital City, partaking in the creativity and entrepreneurial energy. We recently chatted with the 2013 CultureMap Tastemaker Award nominees for chef to find out where they get their inspiration, why they think Austin is a food mecca, and who they would invite over for dinner.
Tyson Cole Uchi [http: /www.uchiaustin.com/], Uchiko [http://www.uchiaustin.com/] Some would go so far as to say that 42-year-old Tyson Cole single-handedly changed the dining scene in Austin. 10 years ago he opened a refurbished cottage on South Lamar, named it Uchi, and began impressing guests with his avant-garde Japanese food. The Florida native, who grew up eating his fair share of Swanson dinners, has been full-throttle ever since: In 2005 he was named one of Food and Wine’s Best New Chefs; in 2008 he battled his idol Masaharu Morimoto on Iron Chef America (Cole lost), and in 2011 he received a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Southwest. Cole opened Uchiko, Uchi’s sister restaurant, and Uchi Houston to standing-room-only crowds and has plans in the works for an Uchi outpost in Dallas and a fast-casual Asian spot in the Capital City. His most telling gift to Austin and the culinary industry, though, may well be his innate ability to foster new talent. What is your favorite aspect of your job? Why? I would think that the favorite aspect of my job would be the people. When I say that I mean the guests and the staff. I live for hospitality, and I’ve come to learn how important it is on both sides of the coin. How and why has Austin become a food mecca? I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’d like to think that when we opened Uchi, 10 years ago, it wasn’t that. Austin has really matured and grown and become this somewhat cosmopolitan city over the past decade. I think a lot of it has to do with the demographic, the people who are moving here from all over the country, and the people who are in tune with food and social media. Austin was on the map before, but now through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, suddenly everybody knows about everything that is going on here. How has your approach to cooking changed in the past year? I don’t think my approach has changed that much. We have three restaurants now, and we are insanely driven to be consistent and to test everything. We strive hard to realize all the talent we have. I think you grow as a team and as a core group as a culture within your restaurants. So my cooking has changed from the influences I have from the people who I work with. Our food is based on creativity, but true creativity comes from structure and organization. I’m at the front end as far as giving direction and pushing people to try new things. But I’m also on the back end tasting everything, refining it. I’m doing more of a director-producer type role with the food instead of being on the line and actually cooking it. Where do you find inspiration for your menu? From all over. Back in the day it was from books, and that grew into the Internet, menus, and looking at what other restaurants are doing nationwide if not globally. You start to see what people are putting out there and you try new things. Half of our menu changes every day, but there are dishes that we work on for two weeks at a time. We get the staff that cooks in our kitchens to come up with dishes. That is sort of the inspiration — through the people. I tasted 23 dishes over the past two days. It gets everybody involved. You invite three chefs over for dinner at your home. Who would be at your table and what would you be serving? First and foremost, definitely José Andrés. He’s my hero. I think he’s probably the best chef in the world not just for his creativity and his food, but because he’s just so pragmatic. Secondly, Thomas Keller. Just out of pure respect. Thomas Keller pretty much changed the playing field for all chefs. And the last guy would probably be Gordon Ramsay. I don’t know if there has ever been a chef as talented as Gordon Ramsey. He’s not just a guy who does this amazingly refined food but career-wise, what he’s done for food is amazing. I would definitely serve something Japanese because that is what I do. I think to have a sense of a communal-type meal, I would have some sort of hot pot. It would be something like shabu-shabu. I think that would be cool.
Photo by Bill Sallans
Tyson Cole Uchi [https: /www.uchiaustin.com/], Uchiko [https://www.uchiaustin.com/] Some would go so far as to say that 42-year-old Tyson Cole single-handedly changed the dining scene in Austin. 10 years ago he opened a refurbished cottage on South Lamar, named it Uchi, and began impressing guests with his avant-garde Japanese food. The Florida native, who grew up eating his fair share of Swanson dinners, has been full-throttle ever since: In 2005 he was named one of Food and Wine’s Best New Chefs; in 2008 he battled his idol Masaharu Morimoto on Iron Chef America (Cole lost), and in 2011 he received a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Southwest. Cole opened Uchiko, Uchi’s sister restaurant, and Uchi Houston to standing-room-only crowds and has plans in the works for an Uchi outpost in Dallas and a fast-casual Asian spot in the Capital City. His most telling gift to Austin and the culinary industry, though, may well be his innate ability to foster new talent. What is your favorite aspect of your job? Why? I would think that the favorite aspect of my job would be the people. When I say that I mean the guests and the staff. I live for hospitality, and I’ve come to learn how important it is on both sides of the coin. How and why has Austin become a food mecca? I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’d like to think that when we opened Uchi, 10 years ago, it wasn’t that. Austin has really matured and grown and become this somewhat cosmopolitan city over the past decade. I think a lot of it has to do with the demographic, the people who are moving here from all over the country, and the people who are in tune with food and social media. Austin was on the map before, but now through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, suddenly everybody knows about everything that is going on here. How has your approach to cooking changed in the past year? I don’t think my approach has changed that much. We have three restaurants now, and we are insanely driven to be consistent and to test everything. We strive hard to realize all the talent we have. I think you grow as a team and as a core group as a culture within your restaurants. So my cooking has changed from the influences I have from the people who I work with. Our food is based on creativity, but true creativity comes from structure and organization. I’m at the front end as far as giving direction and pushing people to try new things. But I’m also on the back end tasting everything, refining it. I’m doing more of a director-producer type role with the food instead of being on the line and actually cooking it. Where do you find inspiration for your menu? From all over. Back in the day it was from books, and that grew into the Internet, menus, and looking at what other restaurants are doing nationwide if not globally. You start to see what people are putting out there and you try new things. Half of our menu changes every day, but there are dishes that we work on for two weeks at a time. We get the staff that cooks in our kitchens to come up with dishes. That is sort of the inspiration — through the people. I tasted 23 dishes over the past two days. It gets everybody involved. You invite three chefs over for dinner at your home. Who would be at your table and what would you be serving? First and foremost, definitely José Andrés. He’s my hero. I think he’s probably the best chef in the world not just for his creativity and his food, but because he’s just so pragmatic. Secondly, Thomas Keller. Just out of pure respect. Thomas Keller pretty much changed the playing field for all chefs. And the last guy would probably be Gordon Ramsay. I don’t know if there has ever been a chef as talented as Gordon Ramsey. He’s not just a guy who does this amazingly refined food but career-wise, what he’s done for food is amazing. I would definitely serve something Japanese because that is what I do. I think to have a sense of a communal-type meal, I would have some sort of hot pot. It would be something like shabu-shabu. I think that would be cool.
