Hailing from St. Louis, Mo., chef Michelle Wallace moved to Houston to study Healthcare Administration at Texas Southern University. However, her love for food and technique evolved while in her undergraduate studies. She became known amongst her college friends and softball teammates for her creative dishes on a budget. With such a large diversity of culture, the city of Houston has been one of the biggest influences to her approach to food and culture.

After graduating from Texas Southern University, Chef Wallace continued to be driven by her thirst for knowledge on cooking techniques and flavors. She decided to further her studies at The Art Institute of Houston to get formal culinary training to coincide with her natural abilities to create interesting flavors. While in culinary school, Chef Wallace did a 3-week study abroad in China. She was able to study in three different cities, Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai. Time with the locals and studies in culinary schools there help develop and evolve her palate and techniques.

Since graduating culinary school, Michelle has had an amazing journey through the restaurant industry. Her time working at Houston’s Restaurant has allowed her to develop her front of house skills as a server, bartender and manager. She has been able to work under Houston famed chef Mark Holley at Pesce. She’s also been able to cook personally for many professional athletes of the city.

Chef Michelle teamed up with veteran Houston Pitmaster Greg Gatlin of Gatlin’s BBQ in 2017. She spent just over 6 years learning and developing her skill set as a chef and pitmaster. Her love for sandwiches dates back to childhood but was really able to showcase that talent by helping create a specialty sandwiches section on the menu there. Some of the dishes include her house-smoked pastrami and smoked bologna that has blown patrons over. The partnership with Wallace and Gatlin proved to be a success and Wallace was able to grab the attention of many across the culinary scene while at Gatlin’s BBQ. In 2021, she was nominated for Rising Star Chef for CultureMap Houston and was able to appear on Netflix’s High on the Hog docuseries. In 2022, she appeared on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl season 3 and was chosen as a James Beard Taste Twenty chef for the culinary series Taste America.

In January of 2023, Chef Wallace launched her own company B’tween Sandwich Co.  Launching initially with a series of pop-up events around the city, b’tween sandwich co. will be a blending of techniques while serving comfort food and traditional fare for creative sandwiches and more!