Food-o-File

Pies & Pigs organizer Elizabeth Garrett reports that between ticket sales, donations, pie and silent auctions, Austin's coolest summer food event raised more than $20K for Colleen Sommers' medical fund. Congratulations to the organizing committee and everyone who made the party such a success. My favorite thing about the event was the multigenerational aspect of the local food scene: One of the first Austin chefs to make a name for himself in the Seventies – Raymond Tatum of Three Little Pigs – took part in a pig-cooking throwdown with the young butchers from Salt & Time, and longtime bakers such as Alain Braux, Melissa Brinkman, and myself represented in a pie auction alongside all the young pastry hotshots in town. Speaking of Tatum, he has moved the Three Little Pigs trailer back under a shade tree in the parking lot at East End Wines (1209 Rosewood).

Opal Divine's customers are encouraged to compete for prizes by submitting fun photos of themselves consuming Opal's beverages to the company's Facebook page until June 27. Winners will be announced June 30 and July 4, so get snapping... Uncle Billy's Brew & Cue and the Austin Zealots home brewing club are sponsoring the Keep Austin Beered Pro-Am competition for area home brewers who'd like to see their beer brewed by Uncle Billy's brewmasters and entered in the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am in Denver this fall. Get details and entry forms at www.austinhomebrew.com before the deadline on June 24.

Kids' summer cooking camps are ongoing at Faraday's Kitchen Store (1501 RR 620 N. Ste. A, 266-5666) through Aug. 16, and at Central Mar­ket Cooking School (4001 N. Lamar, 206-1014) through Aug. 15. Reservations are necessary.

On the trailer food front, we're hearing good things about the schnitzel and stuffed cabbage at Lucy's European Cuisine, Austin's newest kosher food trailer, located on the patio at Texas Hillel (2105 San Antonio) in West Campus.

The Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts (6020-B Dillard Circle) has announced the addition of a farm-to-table experience for students based on relationships with area farms, ranches, and artisan food producers – and they're creating an Urban Agricultural Center to open this fall. They've also added a class on sustainable and ethical cooking to the curriculum... Earlier this spring, we told you about four area high school culinary students who assisted at the James Beard House opening of an art exhibition based on images from Toni Tipton-Martin's The Jemima Code. Costs of that exciting and inspirational trip were covered by $750 scholarship checks presented by the Greater Austin Restaurant Association, a chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association, and Mission Restaurant Supply... And the mention of TRA reminds me: the annual Southwest Food Expo is happening in Dallas this week and Austin's own Beat Divas are presenting a cooking demo called "Tomato Envy" and singing some of their songs about food on Saturday, June 23, from 2-3pm.