eGullet Tex-Mex Q&A with Robb Walsh

Jason Perlow · July 17, 2004

0767914880.01._PI_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg The Tex-Mex Cookbook : A History in Recipes and Photos

We are pleased to again have two-time James Beard Award winner Robb Walsh for an eGullet Q&A from July 19-23, 2004 with a focus on his new book The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos.

The book was released in June and reviewed by Elie Nassar (FoodMan) in the Daily Gullet. An excerpt from the Introduction to The Tex-Mex Cookbook also appears in the Daily Gullet. Robb has been a frequent presence on eGullet since his first appearance for a Roundtable and Q&A in February of this year.

We will be taking questions starting Monday, July 19th, and Robb will respond throughout the week. Broadway Books, a division of Random House, is providing five copies of The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos for distribution to five members who participate in the Q&A.

The moderators for this eGullet Q&A are Richard Kilgore and Linda LaRose (fifi). A moderator queue may be used, so your questions may not be posted until a moderator releases them.

Click here to go directly to the Q&A.

Robb Walsh -- Biographical Notes

Robb is currently the restaurant critic for the Houston Press. He has been nominated for James Beard Awards multiple times for his magazine articles, newspaper series, restaurant reviews, and radio commentary on NPR.

Robb Walsh has been described as “the Indiana Jones of food writers” by NPR’s Lianne Hanson. His last book was Are You Really Going to Eat That? a far-ranging collection of his food essays -- from eating durian in Thailand, searching for the ultimate cup of coffee in Jamaica and the hottest pepper sauce in Trinidad, and doing dutiful field research on truffles in the Perigord region of France and on Bresse chickens, to southern cooking, chicken-fried steak and introducing Jeffrey Steingarten to Houston barbecue.

His book Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses was nominated for a 2003 James Beard Cookbook Award in the Americana category. In additon, his Houston Press feature "Barbecue in Black and White: Carving the Racism Out of Texas Barbecue Mythology" won a Katie Award, a regional journalism prize, for feature writing in major market newspapers.

For several years Robb wrote the Natural History Magazine column “A Matter of Taste”, which explored a wide range of issues in food history and science, as well as culinary anthropology. He also edited Chile Pepper Magazine and founded the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, the largest hot sauce competition in the world. In addition, Robb was food editor of the Austin Chronicle , and he has contributed to numerous other publications.

Robb’s past books include A Cowboy in the Kitchen: Recipes from Reata and Texas West of the Pecos, co-authored with Grady Spears; Nuevo Tex-Mex: Festive New Recipes from Just North of the Border, co-authored with David Garrido; and Traveling Jamaica With Knife, Fork & Spoon: A Righteous Guide to Jamaican Cookery co-authored with Jay McCarthy. His work also appears in Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing, as well as The Best Food Writing of 2001, 2002, and The Best Food Writing 2003.

1582432783.01._PI_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg Are You Really Going to Eat That?