Austin Underwood excitedly instructs how to prepare his famous spaghetti with pink sauce.
“Let the pasta boil first, then you cook the sauce,” Austin Underwood said, running down his recipe. “Then you mix it with the pasta, it’s that easy.”
True to his brand, this “underdawg” didn’t allow his down syndrome get in the way of his aspirations to become a chef. Overcoming adversity is nothing new to the 37-year-old Texas native.
Austin Underwood.
“When he was 21, we found a vocational program in Roswell, New Mexico,” Jan Underwood, Austin’s mother recounts. “Austin told them he wanted to be a chef, but he doesn’t know how to read.”
His tenacity was undeniable, so he was instructed on how to be a prep chef. Slowly but surely he adapted and by the end of the semester he was full on running the Eastern New Mexico University stir-fry station.
“That’s when he really got into cooking,” Jan Underwood said.
The bug never wore off. Since then, Austin’s work has always involved food in some way or another, working at small restaurants and everywhere from McDonalds to Albertsons
Currently, Austin works at Campisi’s, an Italian eatery. Getting the job was serendipitous to say the least. When the restaurant opened up a few years back, Austin and his family decided to give the new place in town a try. After all, it was only a block from home. Before the check came, Austin asked the owner for a job.
Austin serves as the host, and is popular with co-workers and patrons alike.
“I’m a greeter, I help people to their seats,” Austin Underwood said. Among locals, Austin is popular to say the least.
Austin and his patented “Dawgsauce”
Soon, Austin will be undertaking the biggest food endeavor of his life with Austin’s Underdawgs: a food trailer serving grilled franks by Austin himself. Austin will also be selling a spicy and sweet barbecue sauce aptly named “Dawg Sauce” through his website, further getting his brand out there.
“It’s an undertaking of him wanting to own his own business, and me, I want to help expand vocational opportunities for people with disabilities,” Jan Underwood said.
Once the business gets it’s footing, it will be donating some of its profits to the Each and Everyone Foundation, which seeks to develop programs for disabled people much like the one Austin received in Roswell.
The launch of the food trailer is a little more than 40 days away. Until then, Austin will keep cooking for loved ones and being an inspiration to everyone he meets.
“He’s like the Mayor of Ft. Worth,” Jan Underwood said. “He’s pretty direct, very savvy. Like a celebrity.”
