Mete, our city is built on community.
And on April 29th, Austin's culinary community is giving back, give back.
Gig at Skybox on six.
Brings a celebrated chefs and culinary students to support
the Visit Austin Foundation.
Good work.
Austin and Urban Roots.
One Delicious night.
Three great causes.
Get your ticket at Eventbrite under give back.
Dick 2026 s.
Hey, we're busy cooking up Season sace, but in the meantime, here's a segment
from Austin Signal and get ready for a safe premiering on August, 2026.
A fundraiser to help sustain programs focused on developing the next generation
of Austin's hospitality workforce.
Joining us now are Leilani Martinez.
Dina Munoz.
Arlo Irving, and Cerise Magos.
Welcome to Austin Signal.
Thank you for having us.
And accompanying them is their instructor who leads the culinary
and hospitality program, Jayma Vaughn Jayma, thanks for being here.
Thank you, miles for having us.
We are excited to be here.
I wanna start with you, Jayma.
Tell us about this program.
Yeah, I, I can talk all day about this program because, um, it is based around
really, really brilliant students.
But beyond that, it is a partnership that has been at Travis Early
College High School since 2001.
With Austin ISD, with Austin Hotel and Lodging Association and with
Visit Austin, and we're proud to serve the students in our community and to
eventually give back to the community in the hospitality and tourism scene.
So it's a great program and, and I'm excited to be here to talk about it
today and our cool upcoming event.
Yes.
And speaking of the upcoming event, what is this gift?
Back.
So the give back gig is in its third year.
Um, it was the brainchild of the Visit Austin Education Foundation
that is the branch from Visit Austin that, um, works with local community
partners like Travis High School and like Austin Community College.
Good Works Urban Roots to give back to community members who are wanting this.
Wanting to thrive in the hospitality and tourism and restaurant scene.
Um, so the give back gig is where we take these great, incredible culinary
students from Travis Early College high school, and we partner them with
celebrity chefs from the Austin area.
Wow.
A couple of years ago, something really incredible happened in Austin, and
that is that the Michelin guide came to Austin and this was big, huge news in the
hospitality and culinary scene in Austin.
Um, so students who maybe wanted to work with the Michelin chef before that
had to leave the state, they had to go to Chicago, they had to go to New
York to try to get that experience.
But because of the give back gig and those chefs partnering with us, our students
can do that in their own hometown and then they can stay in their own hometown.
They can go to Austin Community College, major in culinary arts and continue to.
Work their way up with local chefs who've been recognized by the Michelin guide.
No, it is really cool to be able to work with the best of the best when
you're, you know, in high school.
So, speaking of that, let's turn to some of our brilliant students.
First I have Leilani.
Why are you interested in the culinary arts?
Well, I'm interested in the culinary arts because I can be creative with
food and honestly, you can ever make mistakes when it comes to food.
You can probably like learn from it or make something new that you would like.
I just like that I get to make food for people that, for my loved ones, and
they get to taste some of like my foods.
I love that.
And Cerise, what have you already learned about the culinary arts as a student?
Well, a basic answer is that I've learned knife skills and different ways to cook.
Different foods, but, um, a more in depth answer would be that I've learned,
uh, the importance of networking and knowing the right people and being
involved in the community, and the importance of working well with others
and doing your best to help everybody.
That skillset will take you far in any career.
So those are good things to learn.
And then up next I have Arlo, what do you hope to learn from this event?
Because you're gonna be next to like superstar chefs?
Well, to build off, uh, Cerise and Ms. Vaughn to say that networking
and having these opportunities with these great, amazing people who
already have so much experience in this industry, and to be there and
to have that opportunity just makes.
Your view of the future just so much brighter and allows you to
build connections early and get into not just the culinary scene, but
the hospitality scene and make a successful career out of your life.
And Dina, how do you help to use the things that you've learned in the future?
Well, since I'm graduating soon, I think that I'm gonna use like the
networking skills and the communi communications because I'm gonna be
communicating with a lot of people.
'cause I'm going into nursing, so I'm just gonna use what I've learned about.
Um, my internships and my internships.
When I did human resources, I learned more about what it's like to work
with other people and knowing how to, I guess, react to how other
people react to certain things that I probably would react differently to.
But yeah, I think I'm just gonna take more the skills on
communication rather than like.
Cooking skills.
We've been speaking with A ISD students.
Leilani Martinez, Dina Munoz, Arlo Irving, and Cerise Magos.
And their instructor, Jay Vonne, will have a link with more info at kut.org/signal
and in the podcast show notes.
And you so much for being here guys.
Thank you.
Thank, thank you for
having us.
The Tacos of Texas is produced by Identity Productions in partnership
with KUT and KUTX studios.
Listen on k ut.org or wherever you get your podcasts.