Cowboy in the Kitchen

The Houston Press's new food critic, Robb Walsh, has written about the gastronomic scene in Texas for more than a decade. He has served as food editor of The Austin Chronicle and editor in chief of Chile Pepper magazine in Fort Worth. He won the 1996 James Beard Journalism Award for an article in American Way (the American Airlines in-flight magazine) about searching for obscure hot sauces in the Caribbean, as well as the 1999 James Beard Broadcast Award for a commentary on National Public Radio about eating Spam in Hawaii.

His column "A Matter of Taste" in Natural History magazine explores issues in food science and culinary anthropology. Walsh's commentaries on food and culture around the world can be heard occasionally on NPR's Weekend Edition, Sunday. He has judged the Clicquot Wine Book of the Year competition for the last three years and is also the founder and head judge of the Austin Hot Sauce Contest, the world's largest hot sauce cook-off, now in its tenth year.

He is the co-author of three cookbooks: A Cowboy in the Kitchen, with Grady Spears (Ten Speed Press, 1999), Nuevo Tex-Mex, with David Garrido (Chronicle Books, 1998) and Traveling Jamaica with Knife, Fork & Spoon, with Jay McCarthy (Crossing Press, 1995).