In the Kitchen
Shawn Cirkiel - Owner and Executive Chef, Jean Luc's Bistro
Shawn Cirkiel has been a friend from the start to the Austin Farmers' Market. He was the first to develop a fund raising dinner with local and seasonal foods to benefit the market. He also stops by the market to talk with the farmers and ask for specific produce for his downtown restaurant.
Cirkiel's philosophy about supporting local food and the people that produce it is to, "try to buy as much as I can locally," Cirkiel explains. "I am a local business owner, and I try to give my dollars to someone here rather than someone in Omaha. I get local people here frequenting my restaurant; I probably will never get anyone from Omaha in here."
Jean Luc's owner continues, "By including the highest quality local produce that is incorporated in the dishes here, the farmers will be helping put my kids through college, and likewise, I am helping put their kids through college," he emphasizes. "Getting supplies from multinational growers and creating multinational restaurants only means that the money goes somewhere else."
Raised as a vegetarian until the age of fifteen, Cirkiel received an early appreciation for fresh foods and flavor in his parents' vegetarian restaurant and by growing up in the country. This results today in many of his savory dishes that explore influential culinary traditions from around the world, yet all the while adding a fresh, local and seasonal approach.
Cirkiel earned his culinary degree from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with honors. His work experience includes time with some of the restaurant industry's finest companies: Domain Chandon in Napa Valley; La Marquesa at the Scottsdale Princess in Arizona; as Chef de cuisine at 22 in Austin, Texas; and a short stay at Restaurant Daniel and Café Boloud in New York. Cirkiel has staged at the French Laundry, Union Pacific, Emilia's and Restaurant Daniel.
Jean Luc's Bistro, Cirkiel's first restaurant at 705 Colorado downtown, serves creative cuisine in a casual bistro setting. Cirkiel, a fourth generation Austin small business owner, knows how to make his place an Austin destination. Rated in the top slot for "Best Restaurant for a Date" and "Best Place to Celebrate New Year's Eve" by audiences of Austin City Search, the restaurant has also received accolades for the culinary expertise of the team lead by Cirkiel. Local top honors include a five star rating from Dale Rice (Austin American Statesman) and many Austin Chronicle "Best Of" categories in 2002 and 2001. Nationally, Cirkiel has been named to serve at the James Beard House, received an award of excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine (2002), and garnered mention in the Bon Appetit Magazine for one of Austin's excellent restaurants.
The restaurant and bar serves lunches and dinners Monday through Saturday. For more information, look up the web site, www.jeanlucsbistro.com, or call 512-494-0033. As a member of the Chefs' Circle for Austin Farmers' Market, Cirkiel will be demonstrating a seasonal recipe at the market at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 31st. And as another 'first' for the market, Shawn will be conducting a "Shop with the Chef" session at 9 a.m. to lead foodies with him through the market to get products for his demonstration. Be on the lookout for something that is fun, interesting and with farm produce ingredients that one might not normally include in an entrée.
posted May 31, 2003 | permanent link to this article
Sam Dickey, Granite Café
- Diane Tucker
Sam Dickey is a lucky guy.
He's young.
He is a chef-owner of a well-known Austin restaurant.
He has Molly, his wife and boon companion.
He's the proud daddy of two young sons.
Chef Dickey traveled with his parents to the ends of the earth. As a baby, Sam and his family left the U.S. because his father worked for U.S.A.I.D., a segment of the U.S. Agriculture Dept. Sam's father assisted several fledgling countries in setting up productive agricultural programs. The by-product of these peregrinations: the family was outfitted with a cook from whatever country they landed in: Paraguay, Bangladesh, Mali, New Delhi, etc.
Sam was fortunate to have encounters with various cuisines at a young age and a mother who was a marvelous chef. These early blessings must have laid the groundwork for Sam's future in cooking.
Sam left home at sixteen to become a chef. He began washing dishes at Biga's at Locust St. in San Antonio where owner Bruce Auden became his first mentor. Dickey worked his way into bread and pastry and then into the hot line. It was here that he met and worked with David Garrido. The duo later came to Austin and cooked at Jeffery's.
Confident enough to go on their own, Sam and his wife Molly opened Taproots Bakery on 12th Street. The bakery soon became a supplier to some of the more notable restaurants and hotels in town. Sam recalled their grand opening soiree; "the air conditioner breaks down and the wine and cheese and bread affair had a nice addition of sweat. And then who walks in but Laura Bush!" Baking was a huge endeavor. Sam began baking at 10:00 at night through 7:30 the next morning and then the deliveries began. By noon when the deliveries ended the sales calls began.
Reed Clemmons, a friend and restaurateur who had helped garner clients for Taproots, raised the possibility of reopening the Granite Café with Sam designing the fare. Obviously, the grand design has worked.
So what's next? Perhaps a cookbook! But for now, the Granite Café and Chef Dickey are just happy about the new Austin Farmer's Market. "This is such a great showcase for the local organic farmers as well as an introduction of new and unique foods to the Austin community," he asserts.
posted May 24, 2003 | permanent link to this article
Hoover Alexander - A Homegrown Texas Tradition
- Eleanor Pratt
Hoover Alexander, chef-owner of Hoover's Cooking in East Austin, is passionate about two things: good food and his roots in rural Central Texas. A native Austinite, his parents were the first of several generations to "move to town," where Alexander went to school and attended UT on scholarship. The association between down-home cooking and family history is a natural one. "I have fond memories spending summers picking and eating fresh vegetables on the farm in Utley where my mother, Dorothy, grew up. She taught me so much about food. She was one of six children and the best cook of the bunch. She's still a great cook."
With that heritage Alexander started out washing dishes in the early 70's at the old Night Hawk organization where his stepfather was a chef, and the passion took hold. After 25 years of doing everything from bartending to waiting tables to managing kitchens to serving as chef at several area restaurants, he attained his dream of opening his current place with fellow Night Hawk alumnus Vernon O'Roarke in October, 1998. "I believe in getting back to basics- simple, home-style cooking. A lot of our dishes are inspired by my mother's recipes," he says.
Alexander's enthusiasm for the concept of the new Austin Farmers' Market is closely linked to his conviction that fresh ingredients are the key to good cooking. "I have many reasons for supporting the AFM, including that it provides a market for small business people (being a small business person myself), it promotes a connection between rural and urban communities, and it provides quality products to the public. You'll see me shopping there for the restaurant." Alexander plans to use the market as inspiration for several new dishes in honor of his mother, incorporating ingredients based on availability just as people who live off the land have done for generations.
You can see Hoover Alexander at work in a special cooking demonstration on the Market's opening day, May 3, where he will teach the finer points of "Fried Green Tomatoes."
Hoover's Cooking, 2002 Manor Rd.
479-5006
M-F 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sat/Sun 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
posted May 3, 2003 | permanent link to this article
Málaga's Alex Duran Brings Spanish Flavors to Austin
- Eleanor Pratt
There's hardly anything Alex Duran isn't enthusiastic about or won't talk about at length, but food and wine are definitely at the top of the list. Duran, chef, owner and wine buyer of Málaga Tapas & Bar, exclaims, "I can't tell you how excited I am about the opening of the Austin Farmers' Market! Growing up in Spain and Mexico, I went to the local market with my mother or our cook, where we would buy enough vegetables, fruit, meat, and bread to last us for a day or two." His earliest memories are of his mother and grandmother in the kitchen preparing dishes from scratch. "I used to get in trouble a lot, so I would be sent to the kitchen to help out by peeling potatoes or shelling shrimp. Food became a part of my life."
Duran learned the restaurant business from the outside in, so to speak. Because his family insisted he get a formal education, he earned a business degree at the University of San Diego, all the while cooking dishes for his drop-in friends and becoming a "good amateur cook," as he calls it. After working in the business world, including real estate, Duran had his mid-life crisis at age 30. "I was doing well, but I knew I wasn't doing what I really wanted." One day on a drive from Dallas to Houston to discuss a job opportunity, Duran decided to stop overnight in Austin, after getting a late start, and spent the next day falling in love with the area. "I spent the whole day hanging out around Town Lake and renting a canoe, and decided I never wanted to leave."
His food career started in earnest with a job as warehouse manager and later Director of Operations, at Heart of Texas Specialty Foods, followed soon by a stint as manager of Good Eats Café. His first foray into restaurant ownership was the Five Star Grill in Westlake, followed by the opening of Málaga three years ago. "The concept of tapas is so cool. It's part of the eating ritual in Spain- tapas at noon maybe with a little glass of sherry or wine, lunch at 3, tapas at 7 when the workday is over, dinner at 10. Doctors are finding out that several small meals are healthy, something we've known for hundreds of years." Duran explains that the tradition of tapas is a social one. He believes the Spanish "invented" the idea of bar-hopping; it used to be that each bar would have just one special tapa it was known for, and people would have the anchovies at one place, and go across the street or around the corner for the marinated beef, and so on.
Duran says that his tapas menu (20-25 varieties at any one time) appeals to Austinites because it's casual, unpretentious, and has authentic flavors. All of his recipes come from family and friends in Spain, and the menu is changed three or four times a year. The influences are mostly southern Spain, Mediterranean, and Moorish. He also attributes his success to giving his customers the opportunity to sample a wide variety of wines, more than 50 available by the glass (in all 400 wines available from every major wine-producing region in the world). He wants people to discover that wine is not just for special occasions- it's for everyday, too. For those wanting to learn more, wine classes and cooking demonstrations are a Monday night custom at the restaurant.
"I'm always looking for inspiration," Duran says. "You will definitely see me at the Farmers' Market on Saturdays. We have fantastic farmers around here, and it's so great that we don't have to fly anything from anywhere- we've got it all."
Duran will do a cooking demonstration on Market Opening Day May 3rd. "I'll probably do a gazpacho caliente, full of fresh vegetables."
Málaga Tapas & Bar
208 W. 4th
236-8020
Mon-Tues 5-midnight
Wed-Sat 5- 2 a.m.
Closed Sundays
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