10 Austin Chefs and the Creative Inspiration Behind Their Meals

Image via Complex Original

Chef: David Bull
Restaurant: Second
Address: 200 Congress Ave.
Website: congressaustin.com

Two of the most popular items on Second's bar menu are the Chicken Fried Olives and Buffalo Fried Pickles. “The olives were actually inspired from two totally different spectrums,” said Chef David Bull. “We were working on how to elevate the iconic pimento cheese sandwich at the same time that we were developing our olive dish. We combined the two and decided to stuff the olives with the pimento cheese spread and then for speed purposes we decided to bread them chicken fried style and deep fry for the ultimate bar snack.”

Chef: Sonya Coté
Restaurant: Hillside Farmacy
Address: 1209 E 11th St.
Website: hillsidefarmacy.com

The Hillside Rock, a baked oyster appetizer, “was actually a collaborative project within the kitchen and was more so a group effort.,” said Chef Coté. “We were experimenting with roasted jalapeno at the time and also trying to find a use for our salami butts. The herbs that top the oysters were parts of vegetables that were not being utilized (carrot tops, fennel fronds) mixed with whole herbs and sometimes blossoms.” In this case, ultra-efficiency leads to originality and the opposite of austerity on the plate.

Chef: Shawn Cirkiel
Restaurant: Parkside
Address: 301 E 6th St.
Website: parkside-austin.com

The low-key sophistication of Parkside contrasts sharply with its location squarely in the middle of Sixth Street. Chef Shawn Cirkiel names a simple dish that reflects his, and Austin's, knack for putting a polish on something that appears to be as normal as just another bar. “One of my favorite simple bites we do sometimes for VIP's is a potato that we roast in oak coals,” said Cirkiel. But like Parkside itself, it brings something forward-thinking to a basic backdrop. “We fork mash it with butter and sea salt and then finish it with just a touch of foam air. It’s earthy [but] complex, a nod to history and the future.”

Chef: Paul Qui
Restaurant: Qui
Address: 1600 E 6th St.
Website: quiaustin.com

Top Chef winner Paul Qui presided over Austin’s most anticipated restaurant opening. The eponymous Qui showcases his talent for incorporating diverse culinary traditions into novel wholes, and no dish has been more popular at the new restaurant than Rabbit 7 Ways. Hot and cold preparations in Vietnamese, French, and Thai styles are presented to the diner in a manner inspired by both the visual and the conceptual. Qui told Texas Monthly “I’m a visual guy so I need visual things to play with...So like rabbit, I want to do rabbit, we can do it seven ways...there’s also that thing where animals taste like what they eat. So like with rabbit, I’m like, ‘Why don’t I make it with carrot juice?’”

Chef: Andrew Curren
Restaurant: Easy Tiger
Address: 709 E 6th St.
Website: easytigeraustin.com

Austin Top Chef alum Andrew Curren’s partnership with baker David Norman, Easy Tiger, excels at combining freshly baked breads with housemade charcuterie. The bologna sandwich is its apex. Instead of a typical deli meat, the housemade bologna has a rustic composition that presents as a completely different type of sausage. And instead of sliced bread, a sweet pain au lait bun makes for a soft textural contrast. It's the humblest of dishes transformed by the quality of its components into something exotic.

Chef: Ned Elliott
Restaurant: Foreign & Domestic
Address: 306 E 53rd St.
Website: fndaustin.com

Chef Ned Elliott makes a limited number of Fried Chicken Biscuits available on his dinner menu, and they nearly always sell out. “I like eggs for dinner, and you can’t go wrong with fried chicken and some lemon jam and a romaine slaw.” It’s garnished with a flavorful update of Texas’s favorite chicken-fried-anything condiment that comes from Elliott's desire to give diners something other than the same old thing when they dine at F&D. “It’s sort of a power play on red-eye gravy, which is a cream gravy with coffee grounds in it. I like to deglaze the pan with a little bourbon, add the roux and then some coffee,” said Elliott.

Chef: Andrew Wiseheart
Restaurant: Contigo
Address: 2027 Anchor Ln.
Website: contigotexas.com

Contigo’s menu has roots in traditional dishes that are finding new life. Novel preparations of beef tongue are showcased in sliders on the bar menu and in Beef Tongue Hash, a popular brunch dish. The restaurant even hosted a cow tongue eating competition to celebrate its second anniversary. While Contigo makes a point to avoid buzzy phrases like “nose-to-tail” and “farm-to-table,” its charcuterie menu, local sourcing, and whole-animal utilization speak to a quiet embrace of their underlying principles.

Chef: Bryce Gilmore
Restaurant: Barley Swine
Address: 2024 S Lamar Blvd.
Website: barleyswine.com

Barley Swine's communal seating arrangement and small plates encourage sharing. This openness extends to the dishes served, carefully composed small plates with seasonal ingredients prepared inventively, often inspired by homey traditional foods. Chef Gilmore says one of his favorite dishes on the menu now is the Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Ice Cream. “It’s a riff on a classic combination, something I loved as a kid. We’ve updated it by doing an ice cream and we’ve carbonated the soup so it’s a great flavor and texture combination.”

Chef: James Holmes
Restaurant: Lucy's Fried Chicken
Address: 2218 College Ave.
Website: lucysfriedchicken.com

Chef Holmes opened Lucy’s Fried Chicken with the desire to operate the kind of place where chefs would want to hang out after work. His love for Austin, especially the music of Willie Nelson and Dale Watson, is evident in the way the restaurant feels like it could have been here since the '70s. Holmes picked the Wood Fire Grilled Oysters as his favorite current dish, thanks to the kitchen's ability to change it depending on their desires that day. “We do a different special every day, and it can be topped with everything from Funyuns to Thai chilies and lemongrass. The kitchen has creative freedom on this one, which makes it fun,” Holmes said.

Chef: Sarah McIntosh
Restaurant: épicerie
Address: 2307 Hancock Dr.
Website: epicerieaustin.com

Attention to detail that marks Chef Sarah McIntosh's dishes at épicerie, and the featured menu dishes at épicerie benefit from her tenacity and willingness to labor over on a single item. “French Onion Soup is a traditional classic that I always love to have in the cooler months,” said Chef McIntosh. “Paying really close attention to all the details of this soup is what makes it one of the best in town. It’s a three-day process and it’s definitely worth the wait.”