Food-O-File

If Jeffrey's executive chef David Garrido is not the busiest man in Austin, it would be hard to say just who is! Since October, Garrido has hosted two successful charity events (Food for Thought benefiting Communities in Schools and Taste of the Nation for hunger relief), launched a new line of hot sauces, available at Sgt. Pepper's, Breed & Co., and Fresh Plus), won first place in a national recipe contest (Best Appetizer, Maple Leaf Farms Duckling contest) and been voted Austin's Most Outstanding Restaurateur for 1997 by the Texas Restaurant Association. Whew! Lately, there's plenty of local buzz about Garrido's newest project, his first as an owner. This summer, look for the New World Cafe to occupy the former Clearwater Cafe space in the Whole Foods Market at Sixth & Lamar. The New World Cafe will specialize in fast and casual dining, serving fresh, natural, flavorful healthy food with a fusion of Texas, Mexican, and Asian flavors. The menu offers soups, salads, tortilla wraps and a selection of vegetarian and meat entrées. Service will be counter style and most menu items are priced below $10. In addition to Garrido, the group creating this distinct, new business are Jeffrey's managing partner Ron Weiss, Copper Tank director of operations Neil Francois, and financial advisor Saul Meyer. The new interior design will be done by Clayton Morgan with graphics by Sean McKenna. The New World Cafe intends to incorporate the Whole Foods philosophy of presenting only the best in natural foods and should be open in July.

For a city not exactly famous for agriculture, Austin now has almost as many farmer's markets as it does farmers. Peoples Farmer's Market, 4201 Westbank, opens this weekend in the Peoples Pharmacy parking lot across from Westlake High School. Market hours are from 10am until 3pm on Saturdays. In addition to fresh Central Texas produce, there will be vendor samples from Homestead Natural Beef, Timpone's Fresh Foods, Texas Coffee Traders, Great Harvest Bread Company, the Living Arts Kitchen and more. For questions about the market or requests for booth information, contact Peoples' new marketing and public relations specialist, Pamela Boyar (280-1976).

New Central Market Cooking School manager Michelle Rogers is busy rounding up talent for the upcoming season. Rogers reports they are booking instructors far in advance and will put out a brochure with several months worth of class schedules and teacher information. In addition to the wealth of local teaching talent, she's lined up national stars such as Philadelphia restaurateur Susanna Foo, cookbook author Perla Meyers, former Austinite chef Reed Hearon, and will once again feature Food & Wine magazine's top 10 national chefs. To get on the mailing list, call 458-3068.

With the number of local chefs and bartenders who play golf, this event should be a sell-out. ThunderCloud Subs and Bad Golfers Association (BGA) invites them all to the first annual Bad Golfers Open benefiting Caritas of Austin. The BGA event is Sunday, June 1 at Riverside Golf Course, 1020 Grove Blvd.; registration forms are available at any ThunderCloud Subs location. Cost is $60, which includes BGA membership, golf, food, and beverages, a goodie bag, and chances at some great prize packages. Contact 479-8815, ext. 402.