Jack Gilmore, owner of Jack Allen’s Kitchen, and his son, Bryce Gilmore, owner of Barley Swine and Odd Duck, will create cuisines that will be abundant in flavor and have unique texture and visual appeal.
“We’re going to have eight great chefs throughout the city, and each one will complement each other,” Jack said. “It will be a great experience, and (attendees) will get a lot of variety.”
Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley where he was exposed to great flavors and ingredients, Jack started working in the restaurant business at the age of 15. Jack said it was when he started as a cook that he truly wanted to join the culinary world.
“Food networks and all the other media that glamorized being a cook never really appealed to me,” Jack said. “It was just learning from good people who set the standard for what a good chef was all about.”
Jack moved to Austin at 19 years old, and it is the city where he said he truly developed his more refined, serious style. Jack will use some of the same techniques in his collaboration with his son Bryce and Jack Allen’s Kitchen’s very own Chris TenEyck, Rojo Lujano, John Summer and Dee-Dee Sanchez. Other featured culinary artists include University of Texas at Austin executive chef Robert Mayberry, Moonshine and Hopdoddy’s Larry Perdido and Cover 3’s Kirk Doyle.
Thursday’s menu will include:
- Bacon-wrapped quail with jalapeno peach jam
- Horseradish-crusted beef tenderloin
- Beeler’s Pure Pork bacon jam with sherry vinegar
- Chocolate tortes with raspberry and lemon curd square bars, among other dishes.
Bryce said he is happy he will work alongside his father who has been a driving force behind his career and culinary skills.
“I like to cook what I like to eat,” Bryce said. “It’s important to embrace change and to adapt to ingredients available to you.”
Bryce said the collaboration is important to the chefs because it helps an organization that nourishes area residents who go hungry every day.
“There are a lot of issues out there when it comes to food, and we always want to help and support an organization that wants to do whatever they can to help others when it comes to food,” Bryce said.
Fighting Hunger Feeding Hope will be held from 6:30 P.M. – 10:00 P.M., Thursday, September 18, at the Capital Area Food Bank, 8201 S. Congress Ave. Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at austinfoodbank.org/feedinghope. For more information, call Ann Nelson at 512-684-2542.
