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What's Next for Top Chef: Texas Winner Paul Qui?
The Season 9 winner gives a status update on his own restaurant.
Already in Top Chef withdrawal? Well, hopefully some news from Top Chef: Texas winner Paul Qui will satiate you! Zagat caught up with him and got the scoop on his restaurant, "qui," set to open in Austin this Spring, although Paul wouldn't provide any specific dates.
“The menu is going to be the best of whatever I can find during that time,” he said. “It’s a 12 to 14 item menu, and the philosophy behind the restaurant is going to be very seasonal.”
But the Top Chef champ is not just going for seasonality, he’s also searching for the very best from the season.
I’m looking at seasons within seasons,” he explained. “I’m not just looking at like, for these four months I can get strawberries. ...all right, out of these four months, which are the ones where I can get the best strawberries? That’s the beauty of having a small menu. I can be nimble.”
That seasonal ethos will extend into the drink menu and even teas and coffee.
But before his eponymous restaurant opens its doors, Paul will be busy at SXSW where he is running SouthBites, a very cool food court for the festival which will be composed of around 15 trucks from all over the country.
He’ll even be debuting a new Shangri La truck that will feature a Chinese-Japanese fusion menu. So expect eggrolls and fried rice, “but done in our way.”
We may have to ask Andy Cohen to bring us back some. We're sure he'll oblige.
