XL Cover Story: XL’s best new chefs 2005

By Dale Rice

Christopher Bauer likes the fact that Austin diners are daring. Among his creations are: bottom left, broiled Japanese sea bass with blue crab souffle, and Hawaiian opah, bottom right, with grilled purple asparagus and Kona sweet crab sashimi.

Age: 34

Training: Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y.

Favorite utensil: chef’s knife

Favorite cookbook: ‘The French Laundry’ by Thomas Keller

Favorite indulgence: foie gras

Favorite type of food: Pan-Asian

Why the Austin area encourages innovation: ‘This town breathes eccentricity. It’s in its soul. People are proud of that here. They expect it in their establishments.’

Christopher Bauer hit the five-year mark in Austin last month, the longest he’s lived any place in his life.

The son of a civil engineer who worked in Texas and around the world (his parents are now finishing a stint in Russia and heading to China), Bauer came here to be with his wife (they now have a 1-year-old daughter) and likes it so well he intends to stay.

'I really love this town,' he says.

Why?

A lot of it has to do with a well-educated, eclectic clientele that is willing to try new things, he says. He worked in places where the audience exemplified an old saying: 'You could try it, but they weren’t going to buy it.'

Those were places, he says, where you couldn’t serve what he considers one of his best innovative dishes: foie gras with crème fraîche gelato, an item that pulls together hot and cold, sweet and savory.

Bauer has customers at Finn & Porter, the downtown Hilton’s fine-dining restaurant where he is executive chef, who have come back repeatedly to have that dish.

'That’s why Austin is such a good food town,' he says.

In developing dishes such as that foie gras appetizer, Bauer says, 'The trick is to stick to the details.' Plus, he doesn’t go looking for exotic ingredients for the sole purpose of putting them on the plate.

'I don’t read a lot of menus,' he says. 'I don’t go online to read (Chicago chef Thomas) Keller’s menus or (New York chef Daniel) Boulud’s menus.'

For his inspiration, Bauer looks at the size and shape of foods and begins combining and cooking them in different ways -- always with the priority centered around taste.

'We’re not off-the-cuff,' he says. 'We put a lot of thought into it.'

He especially likes the contributions his staff makes in suggesting ways to alter a dish to make it better.

'I like to learn,' he says. 'I don’t feel I’ve come close to learning the best way to do anything.'

That open attitude should bode well for him as the Austin restaurant scene continues its upward movement, a trend he expects to continue.

'The restaurants we have now are great,' he says. 'The next generation is really going to be challenging people.'

It’s a challenge that Bauer is up to.