Celebrated Chefs

Vote for the 3 Austin chefs nominated for Food & Wine's best new chef award

As if we needed another reason to celebrate Austin's explosive — and dynamic — culinary scene, Food & Wine Magazinehas nominated three Austin chefs for The People's Best New Chef for 2014.

For anyone following Qui since it opened last summer, Paul Qui's nomination should come as no surprise. The East Austin restaurant is consistently one of the most lauded spots in town, garnering national attention and cementing Qui's position as a young chef to watch in America.

Also nominated is Andrew Wiseheart, executive chef at Contigo. Loved by locals, Contigo hasn't registered on a national level the way restaurants like Qui, Congress or Jeffrey's have. With his ranch-inspired fare, Wiseheart has turned seemingly casual dining into a can't-miss culinary experience.

Rounding out the top three is Mat Clouser of Swift's Attic, the downtown restaurant that bills itself as "modern American small plates." Clouser's farm-to-table menu features such dishes as Lockhart quail, Warm Niman Ranch pork cheeks and Peeler Farm’s fried chicken meatball tsukune. Lest you think Clouser has crafted a meat-only menu, Food & Wine is quick to point out what the chef does best, saying "[Clouser]'s bringing light, imaginative (and spot-on) small plates like charred edamame with chile oil and pop rocks to Austin's meat-centric restaurant scene."

Readers are able to vote for the best new chef starting today, March 24 through March 31 on the F&W website. One finalist will be selected from each region; the chef with the most votes will be named the People's Best New Chef.

Chefs in Dallas and Houston also received nods. In the Big D, Omar Flores of the celebrated Driftwood and Casa Rubia, Matt McCallister of FT33 and Brian Zenner of Belly & Trumpet are also nominated. In Houston Justin Yu of Oxheart and Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner of The Pass & Provisions are also in contention.

Mat Clouser of Swift's Attic

Swift's Attic Facebook

Mat Clouser of Swift's Attic

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NYT loves AUS

Homey Austin bakery Comadre makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery focusing on Mexican treats, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Mariela Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; she won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

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