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Austinist Enjoys Amazingly Delicious Special Vegetarian Delivery Service, Wants More
Local chefs Reyna Bishop and Jen Grudza are on a mission to bring tasty, substantial (and best of all - interesting) food to your house. Their budding once-weekly food delivery service, Chow Baby, is the natural result of their mutual love of delicious vegetarian foods and their studies at Natural Epicurean, an Austin based macrobiotic program.
Bishop and Grudza prepare meals in their downtown commercial kitchen and deliver their wares on Tuesday evenings or Wednesdays before lunch. Recently, the Austinist enjoyed a lunch delivery of super herby tomato soup with wild rice, braised tempeh steaks, and fresh baked bread with non-dairy spread. We have to admit our skepticism. Soup? Bread? Mashed up grain steaks? Please. Sounded like peasant food. And vegetarian food from restaurants can be so hit and miss. How many times have we regretted the horrible ketchupy mass of tofu at Mother's so inaccurately called barbecue? How many times have we regretted the veggie burger at Starseeds? And for God's sake man, how many times have we regretted the veggie plate at Trudy's? Pea-ewe.
Thankfully, our skepticism was turned on its ear - the tempeh was actually not just tolerable, it was great. Savory and warm and smoky and shawled with a dusting of herb flavors, the tempeh steaks were an awesome compliment to the equally herby (but brothy) tomato soup with strong but mellow onion flavors and texturally perfect wild rice. We prepared to drag our teeth through the artisan bread in an absent, non-commital fashion, but our taste buds were jarred awake by the soft and crusty wonder covered with a non-dairy spread that tasted like butter layered with green onions. (We asked for the secret of the spread, but were met with tactful secrecy.)
We wanted to know more about their food philosophy, and luckily they took a little time out of their culinary schedules to share some of what's behind their business and their love of food.
Austinist: What's the most important thing you learned in cooking school?
Bishop: Low quality ingredients can never result in good food. They have to be covered up with extra sugar and salt. High quality ingredients usuallystand on their own and don't need to be covered up. That is why we strive to keep our menus seasonal and use the freshest (and organic where possible) ingredients we can find.
Grudza: Well, the program I went through was so highly specialized (macrobiotic) it’s hard to say. I guess there was a lot of emphasis on how foods work together for your health and that it just so happens that when you get that right, you’ve also just put together foods that compliment one another. I think Reyna and I both try to take a health positive approach to food but without ever, ever compromising on taste. I also learned that Pumpkin Pie made with Kabocha squash is the pits. That will never be on the menu.
Austinist: Who is your biggest culinary influence?
Bishop: My mother. She was an incredible cook. She likes to say I have surpassed her, but truthfully, she is one of the most creative whole foods cooks I have ever met. Traveling also generally brings it's culinary influence andI typically try to bring back a recipe or two whenever I travel.
Grudza: Rich Landau is the chef/owner of Horizons restaurant in Philly. It is my personal goal to make food that amazing one day. Nothing I can say about their food will do it justice.
Austinist: Why vegetarian?
Bishop: I was vegetarian until I was 4 (when we moved to Texas) and then chose to be vegetarian again at age 16. So, I feel very at home cooking vegetarian meals, whereas with meat dishes, I obsess about bacteria and food safety. Also, at a certain point, I realized there are so many possibilities using grains, legumes, and vegetables that I never felt the need to cook meat. It just never gets boring.
Grudza: Before I decided to eat a strict vegan diet, my biggest hesitation was that it would be hard-that I would be missing something. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my opinion, cooking vegan/vegetarian food challenges a chef to become more creative, learn more about the palate, and discover all kinds of new flavors and even cooking methods. We don’t advertise as vegetarian/vegan because we want the food to speak for itself. And besides that, you can get non-vegetarian food anywhere.
Austinist: What has been your biggest surprise so far?
Bishop: The business aspects of running a small business have been very eye opening. We still have so much to learn!
Grudza: How few vegetarian customers we have.
Austinist: Any surprising customers?
Bishop: They are all surprising. We have a fiercely loyal group of customers. They constantly provide constructive feedback and they seem truly vested and supportive of what we are trying to create. We do our best to listen to them; they generally know best!
Grudza: No. They are all wonderful and amazing people who are always happy with everything we make. That’s actually kind of true. But moreso, most of them are pretty food savvy so when they talk, we listen. I think their suggestions have improved what we do and how we do it.
Austinist: What's your best-kept secret?
Bishop: Peanut butter and cocoa powder are the secret ingredients to excellent chili.
Grudza: You’ll have to at least buy me dinner first.
For menus, pricing and other info on Chow Baby, visit them online at here.
