Tavel Bristol-Joseph: A Pastry Chefs Journey from Guyana to "Best New Chef"

07/21/22 • 43 min

Tavel Bristol-Joseph is the Pastry Chef and Partner at Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Kalimotxo, Henbit, TLV and Canje in Austin, Texas. He began his culinary journey as a young boy, spending every Saturday afternoon baking cookies, cakes, and pies with his aunt. After moving to the United States from Guyana when he was 17 years old, Bristol-Joseph attended the New York Restaurant School. He then worked in a variety of restaurants in New York before moving to Tucson in 2006, where he joined Fox Restaurant Concepts. He worked within the restaurant group for two years before going to Zona 78 where he met and began working with Chef Kevin Fink. Fink and Bristol-Joseph decided to move to Austin to open Emmer & Rye in November 2015. Emmer & Rye has been included in Bon Appétit’s “America’s Best New Restaurants 2016” list, as well as named Austin American-Statesman’s“2018 Best Restaurant in Austin.” In 2020, Bristol-Joseph opened Hestia with Fink which has been named “#1 Best New Restaurant in America” by Robb Report. Bristol-Joseph also received the StarChefs Rising Star Award in 2017 and was named one of FOOD & WINE Magazine’s “Best New Chefs of 2020.” Bristol-Joseph is a proud father to teenaged twins and currently resides in Austin with his wife Brittany and his dog Gus Gus.

In this episode we discuss:

Growing up in Guyana
How Tavel got hooked on baking when he was young
Moving to New York and enrolling in the New York Restaurant School
Tavel’s work experience and meeting his future business partner
Opening Emmer & Rye in 2015, and the challenges that came along with it
Building the business, opening five more restaurants
What makes Tavel’s Basque Cheesecake so good!
How he motivates his team
Being named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s ‘Best New Chefs of 2020’
And much more!

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In this episode we discuss:

Growing up in Guyana
How Tavel got hooked on baking when he was young
Moving to New York and enrolling in the New York Restaurant School
Tavel’s work experience and meeting his future business partner
Opening Emmer & Rye in 2015, and the challenges that came along with it
Building the business, opening five more restaurants
What makes Tavel’s Basque Cheesecake so good!
How he motivates his team
Being named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s ‘Best New Chefs of 2020’
And much more!

Previous Episode

Shaun Velez: Pastry Life at a Michelin Star Restaurant

Born and raised in the Bronx, Pastry Chef Shaun Velez graduated from the French Culinary Institute, now known as the Institute of Culinary Education, in 2008. Following his studies, he established his career in the award-winning kitchens of Chef Daniel Boulud, where he worked closely with his mentor and James Beard Award winning pastry chef Ghaya Oliveira at both Boulud Sud and Restaurant DANIEL. Before making his way back to New York, Shaun spent some time in Boston as the Executive Pastry Chef at Deuxave, chef-owner Chris Coombs’s contemporary French restaurant. There, he brought new skills, flavors and concepts to the restaurant’s pastry program and Boston’s overall dessert scene.

In 2018, Shaun returned to the Daniel Boulud family, this time as the Executive Pastry Chef at Café Boulud. Two years later, Chef Daniel tapped Shaun for the Executive Pastry Chef position at his acclaimed restaurant DANIEL. As Pastry Chef at DANIEL, Shaun continues to hone his craft by employing innovative techniques to transform classic desserts into modern creations, working on stunning constructions with the very best ingredients he can find.

In this episode we discuss:

How Shaun first became interested in the culinary world
His experience of attending culinary school, and the opportunities it provided
Shaun’s first experience working at in one of Chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurants
His first Executive Pastry Chef position at Deuxave in Boston
How he landed his dream job at Restaurant DANIEL
His signature style and some of the desserts on his current menu
What direction he thinks modern pastry in the U.S. will go
His views on work-life balance
And much more!

Next Episode

Michael Laiskonis: Teaching and Inspiring a New Generation of Pastry Chefs

Michael Laiskonis joined the Institute of Culinary Education in New York as Creative Director in 2012, fresh off of an eight-year tenure as Executive Pastry Chef at Le Bernardin. He has long been one of the industry's most creative and talented chefs, noted for helping Le Bernardin earn four stars from The New York Times and three Michelin stars. Laiskonis was also named among America's Top Ten Pastry Chefs by Pastry Art & Design in 2002 and 2003, and was Bon Appétit's Pastry Chef of the Year in 2004. Best known for his use of modern techniques to reinvent classic desserts, he was presented with the coveted James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2007. Chef Laiskonis received the IACP's 2014 Culinary Professional of the Year Award, one of the most distinguished honors in the culinary field.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What first piqued Michael’s interest in the culinary arts
What drew him from savory cuisine to pastry
How he developed his pastry style at Tribute in Detroit
How he honed his style as Executive Pastry Chef at Le Bernardin
About his role as Creative Director at the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC
All about The Chocolate Lab, a unique facility for chocolate research and learning
About Michael’s thoughts on how to evaluate chocolate
What Michael sees for the future of our industry