Don’t Miss This Delicious Party Celebrating Local Female Chefs & Grillmasters
Enjoy an evening of fun, feasting and fundraising April 25th at Franklin Barbecue
While daytime hours at Franklin Barbecue tend to be a dervish of brisket slinging and eager tailgating before the doors open, this East Austin icon closes up shop in the mid afternoon, leaving behind a quiet parking lot. But on the evening of Wednesday, April 25, the Franklin lot will host one of the liveliest food events of the year: You Grill, Girl!, a celebration of all things smoked and grilled and cooked over live fire, headed up by Les Dames d’Escoffier and featuring only female-identifying and nonbinary chefs.
What is You Grill, Girl!?
You Grill, Girl!, now in its fourth year, is a major fundraising event for the Austin chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the careers of women in the food, beverage, and hospitality industries. Stacy Franklin, the 2024 event chair (and co-owner of Franklin Barbecue), says that Les Dames is “a volunteer led organization and we fundraise almost our entire amount of money that we give for scholarships and grants at this event.” Those scholarships and grants go toward women training at culinary school, aspiring restaurateurs hoping to take business classes to get their dream projects off the ground, chefs looking to travel in order to research global cuisines, and much more.
In addition to raising money for a valuable cause, Franklin views You Grill, Girl! as a standout festival in a city that’s famous for them because it’s entirely “planned and run by women who work in the food and beverage industry,” but it’s not exclusionary. “We have a lot of guys there!” she insists, and she also mentions that children are welcome to attend.
From a participating chef’s perspective, baker and owner Abby Love of Abby Jane Bakeshop in Dripping Springs tells us that she looks forward to You Grill, Girl! every year because “being in Dripping Springs, I don’t get to town as much, so it’s fun for me to just spend an evening with a lot of these incredible professional women that are in this group and be working at event that is pretty much entirely staffed by and organized by women.”
What’s included with the ticket price?
You Grill, Girl! is currently offering tickets at two price points: General Admission ($90) and VIP ($130). The General Admission ticket gives you a 7 p.m. entry time, access to all of the chef-prepared bites, custom cocktails prepared by Jessica Sanders of DrinkWell, select beers and wines from local breweries and wineries, an array of non-alcoholic beverages and cocktails, tunes spun by Austin favorite DJ Cassandra, the ability to bid on You Grill, Girl’s reliably-great silent auction, and entry to what Franklin describes as “a cowboy disco party inspired by Beyoncé.”
In addition to the experiences included with the General Admission pass, VIP ticket holders can enter the event one hour earlier (at 6 p.m.) and will also depart with a gift bag loaded up with treats from beloved Austin businesses.
If you feel inclined to make You Grill, Girl! an event for the whole family, you’ll be glad to know that kids under 13 can attend free of charge.
Which chefs will be participating?
2024”s You Grill, Girl! roster features an impressive group of female chefs from Austin and Central Texas at large, and while each chef will prepare a dish that’s grilled, smoked, or otherwise cooked over flames, the represented cuisines and culinary techniques will go far beyond typical Central Texas barbecue.
Abby Love will be prepping what she calls a “Hill Country pizza”, Amanda Turner of Olamaie (who’s currently appearing on Bravo’s “Top Chef”!) will serve a grilled spin on Oysters Rockefeller, pit chefs (Sarah Petmecky, Amie Brown, and Theo Nesland) from Franklin Barbecue will offer a creative take on jalapeno poppers whimsically called “Y’allapeno Poppers”, Daniela & Rosa de Lima Hernández of La Santa Barbacha will make their famous barbacoa tacos, Jess Pryles of Hardcore Carnivore will be slinging Sonoran-style hot dogs with smoked sausage, pastry chef Laura Sawicki of Oseyo will take on a dessert course in the form of chocolate silken tofu pudding with coffee chocolate soil and whipped coconut cream, and that’s just a small snapshot of the many flavorful dishes available at You Grill, Girl!.
Be sure to grab your tickets for this one-of-a-kind culinary bacchanal that celebrates Austin’s female chefs — while they still last!