Update on Our Hurricane Response

Applications for Hurricanes Helene and Milton are now closed.

Cases are processed in the order in which they were received. We are distributing weekly updates regarding processing time; please watch for emails from our team!

If you applied for assistance unrelated to these disasters, we are working as quickly as possible to process your case. Please reach out to your case manager directly or casemanagement@southernsmoke.org for any updates. Thank you for your patience during this time of unprecedented volume.

We are so grateful for the outpouring of support, and thanks to generous donors, to date we have granted $680,800 to 487 F+B workers affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton with 2,500 more being processed.

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Emmanuel
Chef Image
Chavez
Houston, TX /
Tatemó
WHERE WILL I BE COOKING:

Born in Mexico City and raised in Houston, Chef Emmanuel Chavez spent his days after school helping to run his family’s Tex-Mex restaurant. Catching the restaurant bug, in 2015, he began a series of pop-up dinners around Houston. In 2016, Chavez relocated to Seattle to work under chefs Eric Rivera (Alinea) and Derek Simcik, named to Chicago’s 30 under 30. While in the Pacific Northwest, Chef Chavez rediscovered his Mexican roots and studied the importance of heirloom varietals and the key process in masa—nixtamalization.

After a 3-year stint in Seattle, he returned to Houston to open his first restaurant, Tatemó. Chef Chavez started selling masa and tortillas at Urban Harvest Farmers Market during the pandemic before finding a permanent home in Spring Branch in 2022. A year later, Tatemó was named a Finalist for the 2023 James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant and that same year, Chef Chavez was named to the Best New Chef class by Food & Wine. In 2024, Chef Chavez was named a Finalist for Best Chef: Texas by the James Beard Foundation.

Generously supported by Mitchell George and Stanley Curtis