Earlier this month on austin.eater.com Andrew Zimmern sat down with Andrea Grimes to discuss the upcoming Austin Food & Wine Festival where Zimmern will offer two different presentations on street food during the fest. During the interview the topic reached Austin’s food truck scene. Here is an excerpt from that interview where he shared his thoughts on the issue.
AG: You’re going to be presenting on street food, right? Austinites are going to love that.
AZ: The nice thing is that we’re talking about the audience in Austin really being willing to be experimented at. That’s a really good thing to have in terms of the cultural makeup of the city. That’s why the music scene is great. The food scene is great. Because there’s so much room under the tent for anyone, regardless of their style. It is a good place to do some of my street food demos. I try to vary it up a little bit. One of the advantages that I have with my day job traveling around the world several times a year and being exposed to so many cool ideas and cool techniques, so I’m going to get a chance to show that. One day I’m doing south American street food and one day I’m doing Asian. So it’s really fun to show people some cool techniques that they can take home to their own kitchens. And people can travel without leaving their living rooms.
AG: Austin’s a huge food truck city, so we’re really into street food culture.
AZ: I would agree 100%. I don’t think it’s only because of the nature of the Austinite’s personalities, the food trucks flourished. I think there were some economic reasons for it and some geographic reasons for it. The city layout and licensing is such that five, six trucks can all get together and plop down in a vacant lot. It works for a whole variety of reasons. But none of it would work if the audience wasn’t predisposed to enjoy that kind of thing.
You can find the entire interview <here>
Andrew Zimmern
Twitter: @andrewzimmern
Chef, Writer, Traveler, Host of Bizarre Foods & MSN’s Appetite for Life. Catch New Episodes of Bizarre Foods America Mon. Nights @ 9pm E/P on Travel Channel!
