Rebecca Robinson won't sit still. In addition to her day job, Robinson is also an award-winning actor, garnering recognition as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for the 2006-2007 B. Iden Payne Awards. Austinist asked Robinson some questions about The Wine and Food Foundation of Texas and her role as Executive Director of the Austin-based organization whose membership reads like a a who's who of heavy-hitters in the growing Texas culinary scene. How did......

Smarter than Tyler Florence and cuter than Mario Batali, the thinking foodie's older man crush — Anthony Bourdain — chatted with a sold out audience at the Paramount last Saturday. At once charming and challenging, cynical and optimistic about the state of food and travel, the audience was walked through "The World According to Tony Bourdain" for an hour an a half - and he didn't disappoint. Bourdain on stage is no different than his......

Last Thursday's Texas Conference for Women brought 7,500 folks to the Austin Convention Center for some estrogen-fueled networking and personal development. With panels on starting a small business and caring for children and elderly parents, the conference served its diverse demographic well. While we wished for a little more substance from some of the speakers and panelists — the keynote session featuring Nancy Giles and Elizabeth Vargas mined well-worn material to the point of blandness......

Providing intricate details on creating a pretty simple food item, Austin director Robert Rodriguez takes the viewer through a ten-minute tutorial on making the perfect breakfast taco. While working on DVD material for Sin City, late nights created mean cravings, and what does every Austinite crave when it's not quite dinner, not quite breakfast? That's right. Using a recipe borrowed from his grandmother, Rodriquez doesn't just throw eggs on a tortilla with one measly......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

Remember yearbook day in junior high? Remember how you'd earmark the pages with your BFFs on them? Remember how you’d find your name in the index and scan each page with your photos, almost overtaken with mammoth anticipation? Remember? Yeah, us neither. But if we were still in junior high, and Zoot Restaurant was in our class, we would totally sign its yearbook with the message, “DON’T EVER CHANGE.” While other restaurants come and......

This is a post from our new contributor, Elizabeth... We love our Food Network (mostly for Rachael Ray, Alton Brown and Paula Deen, not so much for Giada). We enjoyed watching their search for "The Next Food Network Star" earlier this year, and were happy when Dan and Steve won. Did you miss out last time? Don't fret, because they are now accepting applications and videos for another round. We would love for a......

Austinist found a great recipe for Spanish paella on the Food Network website. This is a heavily modified version of it that we found more to our liking, with shallots and even more seafood. Serves anywhere from 3-8 people, depending on whether you're serving alone or as a tapas spread. 1/2 lb Spanish Chorizo, sliced 1/4 lb large Black Tiger Shrimp, peeled & deveined 1/2 lb large sea scallops 1/3 lb Wild Halibut fillet 1......

Always looking to indulge our epicurean obsessions, Austinist has been eagerly anticipating next week's 20th annual Texas Hill Country Food & Wine Festival, hosted by the culinary experts at Saveur magazine. Wolfgang Puck (NYC's Postrio), Todd English (Olives), and Roy Yamaguchi (Roy's) are among the culinary artistes scheduled to present cooking demonstrations before hundreds of salivating Austinites. Similarly impressive are the wineries scheduled to attend, from Napa Valley's Ravenswood to Australia's king of shiraz, Penfold's.......