Food Chick Tours

There's a delicious new way to explore San Antonio like never before

Food Chick Tours allows foodies to experience San Antonio like never before.

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It's no secret that San Antonio is a travel destination rich in history and culture. From the Alamo and the Missions to a vibrant visual arts scene and the prized Spurs, there are many reasons to visit the city. Now there is a new way to explore San Antonio that goes beyond the main tourist attractions: Local writer Julia Celeste wants you to get to know San Antonio through its food.

Celeste, an avid home cook, began writing about San Antonio restaurants in 1979. The dining writer and restaurant reviewer for San Antonio Magazine for 10 years, she is also the guide editor for Zagat San Antonio and an adjunct writing instructor at the Culinary Institute of America. For her latest venture, Celeste has created comprehensive food tours to cover San Antonio’s iconic cuisines and exciting new dining scene.

Celeste's Food Chick Tours are designed to stop at historic institutions and neighborhood secrets where participants meet the chefs and bartenders, ask questions, and sample the restaurant's offerings. Popular tours include the Hassle-free Happy Hour, obligatory Tex-Mex tour, an Anything But Tex-Mex counterpart, seasonally appropriate Tamalada tour, and the popular Progressive Dinner where diners walk between destinations.

“The walking tours are fun because you can stroll between restaurants and get a respite between courses. Locals and visitors alike enjoy meeting the chefs and discovering the food scene here,” Celeste says.

The driving tours involve being chauffeured by a professional driver to avoid parking hassles and tipsy driving. “That driver really makes the all-day Texas BBQ Road Trip [tour] a winner.”

Celeste became known as "The Food Chick" while writing for San Antonio Magazine and decided it was a fun moniker for this venture. “I think it fits my personality and expertise. I enthusiastically share my professional and personal knowledge with my guests on every tour. So, they truly are Food Chick Tours, not generic scripted tours.”

In January she plans to launch the Voracious Vegan/Vegetarian Venture to tap into the "healthier eating" phase people go through early in the new year. “I love those stops and hope it gains enough traction to keep it going throughout the year," she says. "I'm also hoping to solidify my Ice House Chill tour. It's a dwindling tradition and I want to share that experience before they're all gone. Some ice houses are serving great food.”

The Food Chick Tours website currently has eight set tours that customers can book online, but Celeste also customizes tours to meet individual needs. She's booked a family cooking class for a 50th wedding anniversary celebration and led a tour that celebrated a 25th wedding anniversary with two couples who met in San Antonio but hadn’t seen each other in years. She's also expanding services to larger, corporate groups looking for something special to do during conferences.

"Recently I've taken a tour with eight women from three generations of one family who all love to eat and cook together," says Celeste. "It's plans like these that make this so rewarding and engaging. I love helping people enjoy life. It's a blast!"

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NYT loves AUS

Pastry chef from San Antonio makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery by San Antonio native Mariela Camacho, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; Camacho, who is now based in Ausitn, won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Although Camacho was born in San Antonio and started her baking career there, she also spent a significant time in Seattle, Washington, where Comadre started as a pop-up. According to Austin Monthly, she then moved back to San Antonio, and then to Austin. But no matter where she is, the Mexican cooking traditions of her ancestors take precedent.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

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