Robb Walsh is an American

food writer Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on food and includes works by food critics, food journalists, chefs and food historians. Definition Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food ...

, cookbook author, and restaurant owner who divides his time between Galway Bay, Ireland, and

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. He is a former commentator on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, Sunday; former

restaurant critic The terms food critic, food writer, and restaurant critic can all be used to describe a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings. While these terms are not strictly synonymous they are often used int ...

at the

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(2000 until 2010); former

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of Chile Pepper Magazine (1999 to 2000); former food columnist for Natural History magazine, and three-time winner of the

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

. He currently writes about food for magazines such as Houstonia and

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, and websites such as First We Feast. He was a partner and co-founder of the former El Real Tex-Mex Cafe in Houston's Montrose neighborhood. Walsh is the author of more than a dozen food books, including Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook (Chronicle, June 2002), which was nominated for the

in the Americana category. His book, The Tex-Mex Cookbook (Broadway 2004), was nominated for the IACP Cookbook Award in the American Category. His book, Sex, Death & Oysters (Counterpoint Press 2009) was voted Book of the Month in January 2009 by

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. He is also the author of Texas Eats (2010) and The Hot Sauce Cookbook (2012) from

Ten Speed Press Ten Speed Press is a publishing house founded in Berkeley, California in 1971 by Phil Wood. Ten Speed Press was bought by Random House in February 2009 and is now part of their Crown Publishing Group division. History Wood worked with Barnes & N ...

and Barbecue Crossroads (2012) from the

University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books and journals in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texan ...

. His latest book is The Chili Cookbook from Ten Speed Press, which will be released in September 2015. Robb Walsh's writings appear in several anthologies including: Best Food Writing 2001 through 2009 and Cornbread Nation, Best Southern Food Writing volumes I, II, & IV from the Southern Foodways Alliance. He is the founder and head judge of the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, now in its 25th year. In July 2010, along with other veterans of the

Southern Foodways Alliance Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) is an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of the foodways of the American South. Member-funded, it stages ...

, Walsh founded a non-profit organization called Foodways Texas to preserve and promote Texas food culture. Foodways Texas is headquartered in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

and is affiliated with the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Robb Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American food writers American restaurant critics American male non-fiction writers James Beard Foundation Award winners