Famed Austin Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph and the Future of Food

Joins the SXSW party and talk about how we'll eat

By Rod Machen, Fri., March 10, 2023

Tavel Bristol-Joseph (Courtesy of Canje)

One of Austin’s finest chefs will be representing the local food scene at this year’s South by Southwest. Tavel Bristol-Joseph, pastry chef and partner in the Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, works with several restaurants and has made quite a name for himself in the last few years, being named as one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs of 2020. The Chronicle caught up with him to talk SXSW – as both a speaker and an Austin restaurateur (Canje) – the future of food, and the pace of change in Austin’s eating scene.

“Nothing remains the same. Nothing. You can have a piece of wood and you leave it for 20 years, it’s going to change.” – Tavel Bristol-Joseph

Austin Chronicle: With SXSW right around the corner, what is that time like for you?

Tavel Bristol-Joseph: Good question. It is busy. The first half of South By is one of the busiest weeks. We’re talking numerous buyouts, lots of events, because that is the time when a lot of the tech people come into town so they do a lot of food events. Then the second half, that is the music part. You get a later crowd because, after the events, that’s when people try to say, “Okay, great, where are we going to go for dinner?” Or the artists or celebrities in town want to find a restaurant, so you get a lot more of the celebrity sightings. You get a lot of the artists, a lot of those type of people that come to the restaurant.

AC: Tell me about those amazing multi-chef dinners that happen. I know you did one last year with Andrew Zimmern.

TBJ: Those are really fun. I mean, the truth is, we get a chance to cook with amazing chefs, and you get a chance to not only learn, but just be in the presence and basically get a grasp of these people, these different chefs, and not only chefs, but authors and everyone that’s around food. You get a chance to meet the restaurateurs. You get a chance to really see and listen to how they view the world and how they view food, and what does that mean to them, and you come away with a little bit of that knowledge, no matter what.

AC: The SXSW panel you’re on is called Futuring Food Systems: A Seat at the Chef’s Table. What do you anticipate discussing when it comes to the future of food?

TBJ: I’m sure we’re going to talk about sustainability. We’re going to talk about the politics in food. We’re going to talk about storytelling when it comes to the food journey, and what it represents. I think we’re going to talk a lot about the injustices in food and what does that mean, so I think that topic is so vast that everyone is going to walk away from that discussion learning something or us being able to expand on one of the concerns when it comes to our food, our food system, and culture.

AC: I’m wondering, from where you sit in a changing Austin, what it looks like to you whenever you think about food in the way that Austin’s changing?

TBJ: There’s different sides here. I understand the frustration or a concern about Austin changing. I understand that perspective, especially if you grew up in a certain space, you want that to maintain as much as possible.

When I think about change, I think about growth. I think about transitions. That is something, being in the hospitality industry, that we strive for every day. If you’re really into sustainability and culture, then you understand that things have to grow. Nothing remains the same. Nothing. You can have a piece of wood and you leave it for 20 years, it’s going to change.

Wild boar pepper pot with roti at Bristol-Joseph's new age Caribbean restaurant, Canje (Photo by Jana Birchum)

When it comes to the food culture and what we’re doing, I think that the pandemic changed a lot of things. The pandemic changed the world, so I expected Austin to change after that. I don’t think that – if anyone was thinking that things will go back to what it used to be, I’m sorry, that is not going to be the case.

We all changed after that two years. The way we operate our business changed. I do believe that it changed for the better, and we may not see it right away. We will see what unfolds, and what the future is going to look like when it comes to food and how it’s represented in Austin, because I think there’s a lot more diversity in food here than [there] was before the pandemic.

I think that people are more concerned about why and where their food comes from, and who is making their food, more than they did before the pandemic. So there’s a lot of positives that came out of that.

AC: It’s fascinating too because I think change was already here, but now you can’t talk about it without mentioning the pandemic.

TBJ: Yeah. Absolutely. I know I changed majorly. I changed. Because I realized that there were certain things that I needed to value more than others.