{"id":282488,"date":"2025-10-06T20:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/282488\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T20:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:50:15","slug":"chris-shepherds-biggest-food-festival-yet-raises-1-7-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/282488\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Shepherd’s biggest food festival yet raises $1.7 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 100 food and beverage professionals from all over the country descended on Houston for this year\u2019s Southern Smoke Festival<\/strong><\/a>. Held at Discovery Green on Saturday, October 4, the event drew about 3,100 food-obsessed Houstonians. <\/p>\n

The event raised $1.7 million for the Southern Smoke Foundation \u2014 up from $1.5 million in 2024<\/a>. That money helps Southern Smoke provide financial assistance and mental health care services to hospitality workers. Founded by James Beard Award winner (and CultureMap wine columnist<\/a>) Chris Shepherd<\/a> and his wife, Lindsey Brown, the foundation\u2019s assistance is available to restaurant, bar, and cafe workers; farmers and ranchers; winemakers, distillers, and brewers; and anyone in the industry faced with financial hardship because of a natural disaster, medical emergency, accident, or other unforeseen incident, per the foundation.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Brown, who serves as the organization\u2019s executive director<\/a>, is still riding high after this year\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely our biggest talent year ever. We had around 85 chefs and 15 beverage professionals. It was huge,\u201d she tells CultureMap.<\/p>\n

For attendees, having so many options for eating and drinking kept lines to a minimum \u2014 except for the annual wait for superstar pitmaster Aaron Franklin\u2019s world famous smoked brisket. In between bites, they could watching cooking demonstrations, get cookbooks signed by some of the participants, or experience an installation from one of the event\u2019s sponsors, The Resort at Paws Up. Other sponsors included presenting sponsor, Sysco; VIP and automobile supporter, Lexus; hotel partner, the Four Seasons Hotel Houston; and others. <\/p>\n

As Brown notes, bringing that many chefs together has another purpose. It builds a community of advocates who spread Southern Smoke\u2019s missions to their hometowns. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had chefs from every state where we have programs,\u201d Brown notes. \u201cWe had the chef from Michigan who helped us bring the Behind You program to Michigan, Bob Bennett.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the food, attendees have a range of barbecue options. In addition to Franklin\u2019s brisket, Houston\u2019s Truth BBQ (ranked No. 10 in the state by Texas Monthly) served its brisket. Rodney Scott served his signature Carolina-style whole hog. Other tasty bites included smoked lamb ribs from Pat Martin, fried smoked quail from Houston\u2019s Feges BBQ, barbacoa by Adrian Torres (Maximo in Houston), and a boudin croissant from New Orleans chef Kelly Jacques.<\/p>\n

Vegetarians and pescetarians had plenty to enjoy as well. Ryan Lachaine, representing his new role as State of Grace\u2019s executive chef, served poutine with the restaurant\u2019s three-day french fries. Paul Carmichael, chef of buzzy New York City newcomer Kabawa, served cassava dumplings. Chicago chefs Sarah Grueneberg and Bailey Sullivan offered seared scamorza with eggplant agrodulce. Other favorites include a tuna hand roll from Maine chef Jordan Rubin, sweet corn sheet cake from Austin chef Mariela Camacho, and scallop crudo with curry mole from Phila Lorn (Mawn in Philadelphia). <\/p>\n

VIPs enjoyed a number of exclusive bites, including a dry-aged beef burger from Brookyln\u2019s Red Hook Tavern, halibut with caviar from chef Kevin Fink of Austin\u2019s Michelin-starred Hestia, the celebrated collard green melt from Turkey & the Wolf (New Orleans), and a bison meatball from chef Cassidee Dabney of Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee. They also enjoyed libations from James Beard Award winner Alba Huerta of Houston\u2019s Southern-inspired cocktail bar Julep. <\/p>\n

Brown is already thinking about ways to improve next year. For the first time, Southern Smoke worked with a production company on certain aspects of executing the event. It went so well she\u2019s ready to expand the company\u2019s role for SSF 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always can improve every year,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s always ways to dial it in more.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t wait. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 100 food and beverage professionals from all over the country descended on Houston for this year\u2019s Southern…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":282489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[27144,16556,15045,4345,142440,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-282488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-chefs","9":"tag-chris-shepherd","10":"tag-fundraisers","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-southern-smoke-foundation","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115329201254298045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}