Austin’s culinary scene has significantly matured since Alex Taylor received his master’s degree from The University of Texas McCombs Business School a dozen years ago.
Taylor’s hospitality career took him to Las Vegas, where he flourished while working for various casino companies and famed chefs, such as Tom Colicchio, Michael White, Alain Ducasse and Charlie Palmer, among others. Taylor said he benefited from Las Vegas’ rapidly growing restaurant scene, with millions of dollars and endless resources often available to him.
“At the time there was nothing to that scale in Austin that would have kept me here in the food and beverage business,” he said. “Now Austin is more cutting-edge, I think, with what they’re doing in food than Las Vegas, if you take out the [Las Vegas] strip.”
Taylor returned to Austin in December 2013 to open the second location of Due Forni, his Las Vegas–based authentic Italian restaurant that specializes in pizza, pasta and wine. Due Forni, which is Italian for “two ovens,” includes two clay ovens set at 500 and 900 degrees, respectively.
He brought with him Executive Chef Carlos Buscaglia, who has 20 years of cooking experience in Las Vegas, first with MGM Resorts International and later alongside Taylor.
Buscaglia, who splits his time between the two locations, was born into a native Italian family and spent much of his early career in his uncle’s Las Vegas restaurant.
“I would go to school, and then I would go work at the restaurant,” he said. “I really loved it and never stopped from there.”
Buscaglia said he has also seen Las Vegas grow from offering $3.99 steak buffets in the early 1990s to $20 million high-end restaurant concepts. His previous cooking job was at Fiamma Trattoria & Bar, a fine-dining Italian restaurant, before venturing to Due Forni and eventually landing in Austin.
Guidance, not education
The carpaccio ($13.95) includes thin-sliced beef wrapped around market greens, pine nuts and is topped with parmigiano reggiano, cremini and black truffle vinaigrette.[/caption]
Servers guide new customers through the menu so they can find flavors they enjoy regardless of the ingredients. For example, the Due Forni Pizza is essentially an elevated sausage and pepper pizza, owner Alex Taylor said, and the Piccante is like a pepperoni pizza. All pizzas are served with neapolitan or roman crusts.
“Guests aren’t here to be educated. We want to make it feel like we’re giving them an experience,” he said. “Because the cardinal sin of restaurants is to make a customer uncomfortable.”
The keep-it-simple chef
The branzino ($25.95) sea bass tops arugulua, toasted pine nuts and salmoriglio.[/caption]
When Executive Chef Carlos Buscaglia first came to Austin in 2013, he said he visited many of the city’s most critically acclaimed restaurants to learn what food attracts residents.
“It’s a really creative city where chefs are really thinking out of the box—you don’t see a whole lot of traditional dishes anywhere,” Buscaglia said. “I’m completely the opposite. I want to keep it as simple as possible and make it all about the ingredients.”
Secret ingredient: cheese
Tartufo ($20.95) pizza features black truffle, parmesan crema, fontina, roasted cremini mushrooms and a baked over-easy egg.[/caption]
Taylor and Buscaglia said they use high-end ingredients at Due Forni, often paying extra for authentic Italian cheeses and meats that both agree taste better than their cheaper counterparts. For example, they claim to have Austin’s only authentic buffalo mozzarella, purchasing the cheese from a small farm in Campania, a region in southern Italy. Other restaurants could have cow milk mixed in what they claim to be buffalo mozzarella, Taylor said.
“I would say 95 percent of our customers—certainly our first-time customers—have no idea about the difference between buffalo’s milk and cow’s milk mozzarella, and a lot of them don’t know the difference after,” Taylor said. “All they know is this is the best margherita pizza they’ve ever had.”
The carpaccio ($13.95) includes thin-sliced beef wrapped around market greens, pine nuts and is topped with parmigiano reggiano, cremini and black truffle vinaigrette.[/caption]
Servers guide new customers through the menu so they can find flavors they enjoy regardless of the ingredients. For example, the Due Forni Pizza is essentially an elevated sausage and pepper pizza, owner Alex Taylor said, and the Piccante is like a pepperoni pizza. All pizzas are served with neapolitan or roman crusts.
“Guests aren’t here to be educated. We want to make it feel like we’re giving them an experience,” he said. “Because the cardinal sin of restaurants is to make a customer uncomfortable.”
The branzino ($25.95) sea bass tops arugulua, toasted pine nuts and salmoriglio.[/caption]
When Executive Chef Carlos Buscaglia first came to Austin in 2013, he said he visited many of the city’s most critically acclaimed restaurants to learn what food attracts residents.
“It’s a really creative city where chefs are really thinking out of the box—you don’t see a whole lot of traditional dishes anywhere,” Buscaglia said. “I’m completely the opposite. I want to keep it as simple as possible and make it all about the ingredients.”
Tartufo ($20.95) pizza features black truffle, parmesan crema, fontina, roasted cremini mushrooms and a baked over-easy egg.[/caption]
Taylor and Buscaglia said they use high-end ingredients at Due Forni, often paying extra for authentic Italian cheeses and meats that both agree taste better than their cheaper counterparts. For example, they claim to have Austin’s only authentic buffalo mozzarella, purchasing the cheese from a small farm in Campania, a region in southern Italy. Other restaurants could have cow milk mixed in what they claim to be buffalo mozzarella, Taylor said.
“I would say 95 percent of our customers—certainly our first-time customers—have no idea about the difference between buffalo’s milk and cow’s milk mozzarella, and a lot of them don’t know the difference after,” Taylor said. “All they know is this is the best margherita pizza they’ve ever had.”
