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

Pastry Arts Podcast

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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