Top Chef and James Beard Award winning chef Paul Qui takes you inside his East Side King Grackle food truck to plate a couple dishes on their regular disposable plates and then to take that same food and put it on the fancy white plates used in restaurants. Perception plays a big role in how you eat and Paul hopes to show that the food in their food truck is just as good as any restaurant.

Paul cooks two dishes, the Foie Gras Sando and the Uzura Don (Hill Country Quail served over rice).

Some of the staff from Contigo in Austin, TX talk about what they do on their off-hours.

East Side King is moving into the back of The Hole in the Wall, a famous bar in Austin's University district, and taking over their very first brick & mortar kitchen. They're bringing a "greatest hits" menu (pork buns, brussel sprouts, beet fries & more) along with some very non-traditional ramen.

Contigo is the kind of place that cultivates a sense of community and with that comes regulars that feel at home when ever they walk in.

Becky Willard is one of those regulars. Most of the time, Becky says she feels like an alien, but at Contigo, she feels right at home. Watch the video and see why.

Contigo partners with many local farms in the Austin area, but Johnson's Backyard Garden supplies them with a lot of their produce. It's okra season here in Central Texas and Contigo's Executive Chef Andrew Wiseheart does some amazing things with it.

Last month, Paul Qui announced a series of dinners that he was putting on at City Grit in New York City. City Grit is a culinary salon owned by Chef Sarah Simmons, which is housed in an old Catholic School House in the NoLiTa neighborhood of Manhattan. “We host food culture events about 10-15 times a month.”, says Simmons. “We bring in chefs from all over the country, really with a focus of bringing in the next wave of up and coming chefs.”

I was lucky enough to get invited to the opening night (he’s at City Grit all week) and it did not disappoint. Paul also discussed his upcoming plans for not one, but two different brick and mortar restaurants in Austin as well as plans for his East Side Kings food trailers.

Every once in a while, the owner of Contigo, Ben Edgerton, gets together with some of his friends to play music at the restaurant.

In the spring of 2011, Contigo celebrated it's one-year anniversary by taking all of the staff that had been there since opening day out to the Contigo Ranch for an overnight trip. There was a whole roast pig, lot's of beer, swimming and eating.

This is the first in a series of short films exploring the staff meals at restaurants around the country.
The first stop is Uchi in Houston, TX where Executive Chef Kaz Edwards and visiting Chef Paul Qui (winner of Top Chef and the James Beard Award) talk about what goes into making the staff meal at the Uchi restaurants and how taking time out to make this meal each day brings a sense of unity and pride to the people who work there.

Shot over one 21-hour day, this short film shows how Contigo (an award-winning restaurant in Austin, TX) creates the amazing food and service that they have become known for.

A short profile of Chef Gabe Pellegrini and his Austin, TX restaurant SAGRA.

Do you know where your food comes from?

In the past ten years, the organic food industry has become big business and consumers have been left wondering exactly what the word “Organic” means and how they can really know what they’re eating.

With the rise of farmer’s markets and more and more chefs sourcing their ingredients from local farms, consumers are now able to meet and talk to the people who are growing their food.

LOCAL discusses the rise of the local food movement, the challenges of sourcing locally and how it’s become a growing part of the Austin, Texas food scene.

Farm To Trailer documents the award-winning Odd Duck food trailer in Austin, Texas and chef Bryce Gilmore's use of only locally-grown, organic food for their menu. The film also examines the Farm To Table movement, how it's effecting the Austin food scene and the benefits for consumers.