Austin’s Fire-Focused Food Festival Is Mexico-Themed This Year

Austin Food & Wine Alliance’s flame- and beef-focused food event Live Fire is back again this spring with a new theme: Mexico. It’ll take place on Thursday, April 5 at Camp Mabry from 6 to 9:30 p.m.

With that, the chef lineup is amped up with more out-of-town chefs. This includes Eater Young Gun 2016 semifinalist Nashville chef Kaelin Ulrich Trilling, who opened Bajo Sexto Taco Lounge, but left in 2017 a year after it opened (the restaurant closed last month). Then there’s Trilling’s mother, cookbook author Susana Trilling, who also runs a cooking school and gourmet shop in Oaxaca. California chef Val Cantu of two-Michelin-starred restaurant and essential Eater San Francisco spot Californios is also cooking.

Those chefs joining locals like Aaron Franklin, Miguel and Modesty Vidal of Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ, Alma Alcocer-Thomas, Andrew Stiver of forthcoming Driftwood brewery and restaurant Vista Brewing, and many others. The full chef lineup follows below.

The food event will also feature Hops & Grain’s special beer for anticipated Mexican-inspired restaurant Suerte. Other drinks include wines from Washington state and beers from Vista brewing. For desserts, there will be fudgesicles made with mole from Suerte, among others.

The first 150 Live Fire tickets sold, available now, are discounted to $85, which will rise up to $95. VIP tickets are $150. The event runs from 7 to 9:30 p.m. (with VIP access starting at 6 p.m.). Money raised from the event will go back into the Austin Food & Wine Alliance’s culinary grant program.

Live Fire’s Chef Lineup

Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue
Miguel and Modesty Vidal, Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ
Rick Lopez, La Condesa
Joaquin Cardoso and Sofia Cortina Camargo, Hotel Carlota in Mexico City
Susana Trilling, Seasons of My Heart Cooking School and gourmet store in Oaxaca, Mexico
Kaelin Ulrich Trilling, Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca
Val Cantu, Californios in San Francisco
Alma Alcocer-Thomas, El Alma
Andre Natera, Fairmont Austin
Andrew Stiver, Vista Brewing
Anne Ng and Jeremy Mandrell, Bakery Lorraine in San Antonio and forthcoming Austin location
Daniel Brooks, Licha’s Cantina
Evan LeRoy, LeRoy & Lewis
Fermín Núñez and Sam Hellman-Mass, Suerte
Kevin Taylor, ATX Cocina
Louis Ciola, Salt & Time
Page Pressley, Emmer & Rye
Rene Ortiz and Laura Sawicki, Fresa’s Chicken al Carbon and Launderette
Rico Torres and Diego Galicia, Mixtli in San Antonio
Tien Ho, Whole Foods Market
Brent Fogerty, Cold One Pops
Katherine Clapner, Dude, Sweet Chocolate in Dallas

• Live Fire [Austin Food & Wine Alliance]