2013 Tastemakers
Meet the Tastemakers: Austin's top chefs on menu inspiration and our growing food mecca
Mar 29, 2013 | 9:30 am
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.
Todd Duplechan Lenoir [http: /lenoirrestaurant.com/] Todd Duplechan moved to Austin from New York with a plan — to open a restaurant with his wife. It didn’t quite work out as expected (the economy went sour), but the couple stayed true to their dream — and thank goodness they did. Lenoir opened its doors in 2012 and has seen a mad rush ever since. Duplechan’s much publicized “hot-climate” food — a theory based on cooking only with foods that were meant to grow in a hot climate — has developed a following of devoted fans. For Duplechan and his wife, pastry chef Jessica Maher, Austin is about the land, the growers, the people and the community. And about family. Duplechan, a native of Dallas, got his first taste of the restaurant industry working at a family friend’s barbecue joint. Now, he’s the owner of a family restaurant — and life is good. What is your favorite aspect of your job? For me, just making people happy. I get to be in the dining room for dinnertime, so giving people food that they enjoy and being a part of their little celebrations is very fun. How and why has Austin become a food mecca? For whatever reason, all these different forces have come together and people just want to be in Austin. I’ve worked in a lot of markets, and I’ve never seen growth anywhere close to what I’ve seen here in the past five years. Whenever we moved here, six years ago, the talked-about restaurants, besides Uchi, were completely different than what’s talked about now. The restaurants that were talked about then, you don’t hear about. The chefs, for the most part, you don’t hear about any more. It’s this whole new crew of young people. You look at most of those guys, and I would say probably half of them, if not more, worked at Uchi. So, there’s a spark that was started here by Tyson [Cole], and maybe Philip [Speer], that has really rippled out. It is almost a revolution. And the cool thing is that not everybody is doing the same thing. How has your approach to cooking changed in the past year? I think that my approach to cooking has been kind of solidified over the past five years — and to what my specific style is. I call the food that I cook hot-weather food. It’s climate-based food. I started gearing my ideas and concepts around not only what’s growing here in Texas but also similar kinds of foods that have the same kind of climate, like north Africa and southern India. Where do you find inspiration for your menu? What it is like outside really affects what I would like to eat. The weather is something that I draw inspiration from. I look at what’s growing, what my farmers are doing. I look through a lot of books and basically get my juices flowing. I eat something or I do something or I read a book or see a butterfly — I mean, who knows where things come from. You invite three chefs over for dinner at your home. Who would be at your table and what would you be serving? I would probably have Juan Mari Arzak, a Spanish chef. He’s really an amazing chef and has done wonders for Spanish food. I would probably have Dan Kluger because he’s a buddy of mine and he’s also a generally good person. I would have Jesse Griffiths, who is here in Austin. I like hanging out with people who are fun. I would probably do something with fish. Probably some shrimp and ceviche. Easy stuff that we can drink some Champagne with and enjoy ourselves.
Photo by Hayden Spears