Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood invites you to a BookPeople celebration of Chronicle Food writers, asks for your help on a story, and tells you to look for Austin on the TV Food Network in this week's "Food-o-File."
By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., July 4, 2003
Personal Invitation
It's no secret how proud I am to work with the writers who contribute to the Chronicle Food section -- I consider myself very lucky to have such a diverse pool of talent from which to draw. Next Wednesday, July 9, at 7pm, we're joining forces with BookPeople to celebrate the accomplishments of three of our Food writers. Please consider this your personal invitation to join us for a reception and book signing to honor MM Pack, essay contributor to Cornbread Nation I: The Best of Southern Food Writing; Wes Marshall, author of The Wine Roads of Texas; and Art Meyer and Jon M. "Mick" Vann, authors of The Appetizer Atlas: A World of Small Bites. We'll be serving tasty appetizers and fresh peach cobbler and pouring some fine Texas wines. The party is free to the public, and it's a great opportunity to meet some of your favorite food writers and get signed copies of their fine new books. Y'all come!
Request for Help
I've been researching a story on the history of local bakeries over the past 30 years, and I've hit a few potholes. I'm hoping the readers in their infinite wisdom can help me fill in the gaps. Does anyone know the whereabouts or the last names of a young couple named José and Lisa who operated Le Bastille Bakery here in the early Eighties? Plenty of folks, including me, remember buying their pastries at the old Idaho Gems restaurant that eventually became the first Chez Fred location, but no one seems to recall their last names. I'd also like to talk to Hyde Park Bakery founder Jack Frederick about when he opened that bakery and when he sold it to Ed Shaw. And I'm also trying to locate the last woman who owned Old World Bakery on West 12th, in something like 1997. If you've got leads on any of these folks, please leave me a message at the Chronicle office, 454-5766, or e-mail me at vbwahotr@austinchronicle.com. Thanks.
Austin Looks Good on TVFN
The TV Food Network just loves Austin! Last week, I caught a segment of Rachel Ray's $40 a Day program that was filmed here this winter. The charming young hostess bought a handful of Austin CDs at Waterloo Records (Sixth & Lamar, 474-2500), which luckily didn't seem to come out of her food budget. The friendly folks at Waterloo sent her to Taco X-Press (2529-A S. Lamar, 444-0261) for a hearty, very affordable taco breakfast, and she discovered Cafe Josie (1200 W. Sixth, 322-9226) through an article in Austin Monthly. She enjoyed soup and salad there for lunch. Friends had suggested she take the drive out to the Salt Lick (18300 FM 1826 in Driftwood, 894-3117) for a barbecue dinner, and she raved about their combo platter. All in all, Ray appeared to have a great day in Austin, and the local places she visited photographed beautifully for the segment. That amounts to very good national advertising for the Austin food scene, and I'm all for that!
