Tavel Bristol-Joseph
Emmer & Rye | Austin
December 2017
Tavel Bristol-Joseph’s aunt used baking as a form of “punishment” if he missed his curfew. After a few weekends covered in fl our, the Guyana native discovered that he was falling in love with the kitchen. Moving to New York at 17, he attended the New York Restaurant School and landed a pastry cook job at The River Café.
Bristol-Joseph moved on to become pastry sous chef at Blue Fin at the W Hotel in Times Square before relocating to Tucson, Arizona. While working as executive pastry chef at Hacienda Del Sol resort, he met Kevin Fink. The two developed a productive working relationship and fast friendship. When Fink moved to Austin, Bristol-Joseph followed to help open Emmer & Rye.
Together, and alongside Chef Page Pressley, the trio is developing a hyper-originalist pantry that expresses fl avors of South Central Texas. (The only ingredient BristolJoseph sources from outside Texas is cacao.) As pastry chef and partner, Bristol-Joseph leads a program aligned with the restaurant’s mission to eliminate and transform waste, and he features desserts that tell complex stories from an emotional, personal perspective. In late 2017, the Emmer & Rye trio earned StarChefs Rising Stars Awards, and in early 2018, they launched casual spinoff Henbit.
