At the 2014 Austin Food & Wine Festival, I was lucky enough to judge Rock Your Taco along with my friends Graham Elliot, Christina Grdovic and Britt Daniel of Spoon. Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at just some of the amazing tacos made that night. There wasn’t a dud in the house.

Some of the highlights include talking to Tyson Cole of Uchi and Uchiko about his specific brand of taco (a puffy taco with seabass… shell kind of wins or looses the competition and his was like sandwich bread, which honestly worked for me!). Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine made goat tacos with goat everything (like rendered goat fat!). Rick Bayless from Frontera Grill (and one million other places) made a cochinita taco with pibil. He says he’s just a humble chef, which is something only a badass chef would say about themselves. Rick is a rockstar.

Georgia Pellegrini made some incredible tacos with green plantain/cardamom tortillas, filled with venison and Cuban oregano vinaigrette that she sourced from somewhere very secretive. I won’t share your secret, GP. She topped the whole thing with picked carrots and jicama, and a smoky salsa.

And of course, the winning taco (spoiler alert) came from the one guy I didn’t get a chance to interview before the party started: Richard Blais.

Anyhow, a fun night of food, drinks, and tacos. I love Austin Food & Wine.