Chris Shepherd

Founding Director & Honorary Chairman

James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd is the co-founder of the James Beard Award-winning Southern Smoke Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting food and beverage workers in crisis. Since 2015, Southern Smoke has distributed more than $16.5 million in emergency relief grants and funded more than 11,000 no-cost mental health counseling sessions, becoming one of the industry’s leading safety nets.

A champion of hospitality on and off the plate, Shepherd was named Editor in Chef for Food & Wine in 2024, where he brings a chef’s perspective to stories about food, wine, hospitality culture, and mentorship. In 2023, he launched the television series Eat Like a Local on Houston’s KPRC-TV, which has earned two Lone Star Emmy Awards.

Shepherd reshaped Houston’s culinary landscape with the opening of Underbelly in 2012, a restaurant built on celebrating the city’s diverse communities and the farmers, ranchers, and suppliers who sustain them. Underbelly received widespread national recognition, earning honors from Bon Appétit, Esquire, and Eater. In 2013, Shepherd was named one of Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs, and in 2014 he received the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest. He was later recognized as a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Chef and was named Robb Report‘s Chef of the Year in 2019.

Beyond the kitchen, Shepherd is an acclaimed author and storyteller. His cookbook, Cook Like a Local, was nominated for a James Beard Book Award, and his work continues to explore the intersection of food, wine, community, and the people who make hospitality possible.