 "Photo: John Gilchrist")
Tyson Cole, executive chef and co-owner of Uchi restaurant on South Lamar, used to tread the 40 Acres musing about his future, which resulted in him changing majors "four or five times" in the one semester he attended. Fifteen years later, Cole was on the set of Food Network's "Iron Chef" musing about ginger, the secret ingredient Cole and his challenger, Iron Chef Morimoto, incorporated into dishes as the two competed head-to-head. Although he lost, his accolades, including his meteoric rise from a lowly dishwasher to a head chef, make him worthy of the crown as Austin's iron chef.
Daily Texan: You cite painting as a former hobby of yours. Talk about the differences between creating a dish and drawing, say, a portrait.
Tyson Cole: Painting is similar to food in the preparation aspect. But when I paint a painting and I say it's done, it's done. Every day I see it, it continues to laugh at me. I always want to change it or make it better, but when it's done, it's done. The thing about food is you get so many more chances.
A lot of people say it takes a lifetime to become a great chef - which it does. The great thing about it is you keep evolving and get so many chances to make things great.
DT: Do you still paint?
TC: No. I got to a point where I couldn't afford to be a painter anymore. A lot of it was inspired by the food I was making at Kyoto, but I wasn't making a whole lot of money there. Plus, I was spending $500 at art supply stores without good results. The frustrating part of painting was that I couldn't change paintings after the fact and even if I tried, that just fucks it up even more. The coolest thing about having my own restaurant is we have the ability to order anything from the entire planet - any kind of ingredient fish, meat, plant. I can play with those ingredients, and it's great.
DT: You've said in previous interviews that you grew up watching the original Iron Chef. What about the show drew you to cooking?
TC: Actually, I was misquoted. The real story goes like this: When I was at Kyoto, the three sushi chefs got me into it. So we would work all day and all night for 14 hours, and we would go downstairs to Elephant Room, a jazz bar, and drink whisky. Then, when the bar would close we would go to one of the guy's apartment. There we would always watch Japanese VHS tapes. One tape that was a favorite of theirs was always "Iron Chef" because at the time it was the most popular show in Japan. It was the equivalent of "Seinfeld" in America. When I watched it, I thought it was utterly amazing. I think in the mid-'90s the real upcoming chef then was Morimoto. He did some things with sushi that Japanese people didn't like. He was breaking the rules, so he was my favorite by far. Fast forward 10 years, and now he's one of the chefs on the show.
DT: How did you end up appearing on Iron Chef?
TC: The Food Network came down and did a show called "Throwdown with Bobby Flay." When they were filming, the producers all came into Uchi to eat everyday, and that's why they called me a few months later to go on the show. It was pretty exciting, although I was kind of beside myself and feeling a little trepidation, but I was all the more ready to go and compete. During the course of our preparation, they let out a big secret: they tell the competitors it's going to be one of three secret ingredients. From that point, all that month was probably one of the most stressful times of my life. I'd never practiced anything where I knew later that I wasn't going to do it. I wished it was just like I thought it was where you just show up and are told the ingredient. It was like getting a call to be in the Olympics, but then they call you and say, "It's going to be one of these three events, but we won't say which one until you get there."
DT: Do you have any upcoming projects?
TC: Right now we're looking for a location to possibly open another Uchi maybe in North Austin or maybe in Houston. However, wherever it is, it won't be like the original; it'll be like an offshoot where there are no reservations. I said I'd never do that, but there is a demand. Trying to repeat something special sometimes makes that thing not special. If you have a child, it's great. If you have two, you have to make sure you're paying enough attention to both. That was always a concern, so I never wanted to do that. But I'm at the point now where my staff wants to open a new restaurant.
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