Field Reports

“I was starting to be known as the meat guy,” admits British cookbook author and food television presenter Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as we share a booth at the Spotted Pig in New York's West Village. In the U.K., Hugh is famous for his River Cottage television series — where he cooks from his Devon headquarters (the cottage) while instilling a “back to basics” ethic. He was in town to cook a whole bunch of vegetables.

Over the weekend we decamped to Austin, Texas for the second annual Austin Food & Wine Festival. It’s become sort of an annual spring thing for us and might we just say that spring has sprung in that part of the country. Texas, y'all are some beautiful people. Here's what we got ourselves into.

I spent Sunday afternoon basking in cool, sunny weather in Williamsburg's East River Park, enjoying the involuntary tears that come when you've tried about 50 of the hottest sauces available on the market today. Here are our favorites, plus what happened when we tried the single most mouth-scorching offering in the park.