Food-O-File
History Pop Quiz
By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., April 2, 1999
Spring Market Openings
Though we really never had a winter, spring is finally here and local farmer's markets are opening again. The Westlake Farmer's Market (4100 Westbank, in the Westlake High School parking lot, 280-1976) reopens this Saturday, April 3, 10am-1pm. Market manager Pamela Boyar expects more than 20 vendors selling vegetables, fruits, plants and transplants, goat cheese, natural meats, herbs, flowers, breads, pastries, salsas, pastas, and more. Chef/author David Garrido will sign copies of Nuevo Tex-Mex (Chronicle Books, $19.95 paper) opening day. Austin's Historic Farmer's Market(6701 Burnet, 454-1002) expects farmers to return by mid-April but market master Hill Rylander reports that all the market's restaurants and shops are open for business, and Hill Country Landscape has bedding plants ready for spring gardens. The reliable South Austin Farmer's Market (2910 S. Congress) is always open on Saturday mornings, and the Wednesday afternoon market at Whole Foods downtown (West Sixth & Lamar) is still kicking.
More Creative Fundraising
The most creative fundraiser I've heard about since last fall's Empty Bowl Project has to bethe Guess Who's Coming to Dinner event in February, benefiting Project Transitions (454-8646). Guests purchased tickets to one of 22 dinner parties that were staged in private homes on the evening of February 6. Each host chose a dinner theme, such as Under the Tuscan Sun, Winter in Provence, or Cooking Like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and prepared three courses. After dinner, all the hosts and their guests (about 250 people) were welcomed into the home of Jerry Jeff and Susan Walker for champagne and dessert, and each was given a booklet with dinner menus and a few recipes as a memento of the evening. Backed by underwriting from Walgreen Drug and several hosts, the event raised more than $17,000 to support project programs. What an ingenious way to involve more of the community in the fundraising process! Bravo.
Bocaditos
After an exhaustive search, the Bitter End Bistro & Brewery (311 Colorado, 478-BEER) has hired chef Matthew Shipman to helm its kitchen. A native of Dallas, Shipman comes to Austin from San Francisco, where he was sous-chef at Roti, a restaurant similar to the Bitter End...
The 1999 Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival (329-0770), with a focus on Chardonnay, happens at the Four Seasons (98 San Jacinto) April 8-11...
April will be a busy month at Central Market Cooking School (4000 N. Lamar, 458-3068); the schedule is packed with celebrity chefs, including nationally known cookbook author Barbara Kafka (4/13), Austin native and Dallas star restaurateur Matt Martinez Jr. (4/22), New England cooking teacher Betsy Oppenner (4/24), and Washington, D.C. chef Joel Olsen (4/29-30)...
Congratulate Kent Cole and his hardworking Magnolia Cafe West staff on their 20th anniversary; the year they opened was 1979.
