Mayville, Dodge County Pionier
Apr
02
2015
Page
A001
Fausett Is A Chef On The Rise
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Austin Fausett, right, talks with the hosts from ABCʼs Letʼs Talk Live in Washington, D.C. as he does a cooking demonstration. Austin, a graduate of Horicon High School, has learned the craft at some well-known restaurants in cities around
the world, including San Francisco, New York, Vienna, and the nationʼs Capitol. He was named the 2014 Rising Star
Chef by StarChefs.com. (submitted)
by Gayle Rydstrom
Austin Fausett, a 2004
graduate of Horicon High
School, is the executive
chef of Trummerʼs on Main
in Clifton, VA. A job at a
Horicon restaurant has led
to a career that has taken
Austin from one coast to
the other in the United
States as well as Austria.
“I started at Hubbards
Rapids in Horicon in 1999
as a dishwasher and bus
boy,” said Austin. “I always
wanted to do something
creative and found cooking
to be very satisfying. I
quickly realized cooking
would be my ticket to travel
and exploring the world.”
Austin attended Fond
du Lacʼs campus of
Moraine Park Technical
College for culinary arts in
2004, and moved to San
Francisco in the fall of
2005 to start his journey.
“I moved to San Francisco because the city has
a booming culinary food
and wine scene that had a
lot of opportunities for me
to learn,” said Austin of his
decision to move.
He worked as a line
cook at Town Hall Restaurant, named the best new
restaurant in San Francisco in 2004. The restaurant
featured
New
Orleans-style food, which
Austin loved.
In order to make ends
meet, the young man from
Horicon worked at a bakery during the wee hours of
the morning and at an oyster bar in Rockridge Oakland on days he didnʼt work
at Town Hall.
“I was in there for a
year, and decided to continue traveling and learning
different regional cuisines,”
said Austin. “In 2006, I
moved to New York City.”
He chose New York City
because he wanted to
learn to become a great
chef by working for a great
chef. It took Austin approximately three weeks to find
the ideal job.
“I was staging for
Gramercy Tavern for a
week, and Michael Anthony offered to get me a
job at Hearth or at Craftbar,” said Austin. “I graciously accepted the job
opportunity at Craftbar,
under chef owner Tom Colicchio and chef de cuisine
Phillipe Besson.”
Michael Anthony is the
executive chef/partner of
Gramercy Tavern.
Austin was a line cook
at Craftbar through January 2008. He met his wife,
Morgan, in 2007. The two
were introduced by Jakob
Stoehr, another Horicon
graduate. Morgan was living in Washington DC.
They long-distance dated
for six months before
Austin moved to the nationʼs capitol.
“Having experience in
New York City kitchens
definitely opened doors for
me when I moved down to
Washington, DC,” said
Austin. “I got a job at
Washington DCʼs number
one restaurant at the time,
Citronelle Michel Richard.”
Morgan graduated with
a Fulbright Scholarship to
teach English in Vienna,
Austria. Austin leapt at the
opportunity to learn and
cook in Europe. He left his
job as a line cook at Citronelle after one year, and
Austin and Morgan were
on their way to Vienna.
“Getting a work visa in
the national capitol of Austria was impossible for
someone from outside the
EU,” said Austin. “But I was
able to find work as a chef
de saucier at a new Michelin-starred restaurant during the year we were
there.”
The couple met many
wonderful people in Austria, and they still keep
close contact with them.
Back in Washington, DC,
Austin
joined
Michel
Richard at Central as the
sous chef for two years.
Hired at the prestigious
Inn At Little Washington as
the chef de partie in 2011,
Austin was the sous chef
when he left in 2013. The
restaurant, set in a small
rural Virginia town, features locally-sourced ingredients, many from its own
garden.
In 2013, he took his first
position of executive chef
at Trummerʼs on Main, a
restaurant located in quaint
Clifton, VA. The restaurant
is set in a historic building
that was built in 1870.
Tummerʼs on Main seats
230.
“The restaurant was remodeled and opened in
2009, and garnered much
acclaim from Washington
journalists and diners,”
said Austin. “The restaurant features creative
American cuisine, using
Virginiaʼs local, seasonal
ingredients.”
Creative, you ask? The
dishes on the menu rotate
seasonally. Austin commented on two dishes.
“We roast bone marrow
with barbecue spices,” said
Austin. “After eating the
bone marrow, we offer our
guests to do a shot of bourbon down the bone, which
is very unique.”
A duck dish includes
foie gras and popcorn,
which Austin said is a lot of
fun.
“Ducks eat corn, so the
pairing seems natural,” he
explained. “We toss the
popcorn with truffle oil,
duck fat, parmesan, bacon,
and pine nuts.”
Austin has no desire to
appear on Chopped, explaining that most of the ingredients the chefs are told
to use he would not want to
put together. He has entered cooking competitions, winning the title of
Best Young Chef Mid-At-
lantic with the Chaines des
Rotisseurs in 2011. In each
of the three years since,
Austin has coached a team
of young chefs in the competition.
Other awards Austin
has received include 2011
Dinner with Alice Waters at
Monticello, VA, Washingtonian #1 Restaurant for
Decor/Ambiance
2013,
2013 Washington Post Top
40 Favorite Restaurants,
and 2014 Rising Star Chef
by StarChefs.com.
Although Austin doesnʼt
keep track of the hours he
works, he believes it ends
up being 60 to 70 over 5.5
days.
“I wouldnʼt have it any
other way,” he said. “I love
the people I get to work
with each day and it is a
very satisfying career.”
Austin and Morgan married in 2011. Morgan is a
sommelier (expert on wine)
at Proof restaurant in
Washington, DC, having
earned certifications with
The Court of Master Sommeliers.
What does the couple
do in their free time?
“We love to entertain
and have friends over,”
said Austin. “Dinner parties, going out with industry
peers is something we always are doing.”
Once or twice a year,
Austin likes to play drive
track days at local race
tracks for a hobby.
Although Austin and
Morgan would like to be
closer to family by living in
Philadelphia, where Morgan hails from, or Chicago
so they are closer to Horicon, for now Austin and
Morgan plan to stay in the
Washington, DC area.
“We have lived here together now for eight years,
and we have amassed a
great group of friends,”
said Austin. “It truly feels
like home. That being said,
I still have an itch to travel
more.”
To learn more about
Austin and read the
recipes of the two dishes
he described in this article,
visit StarChefs.com.
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