James Beard Award-winning Chef Chris Shepherd has reshaped Houston\u2019s culinary landscape since opening Underbelly in 2012. Built on a commitment to Houston\u2019s food community and its suppliers, Underbelly earned national acclaim as a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, one of Bon App\u00e9tit<\/i> and Esquire<\/i>\u2019s best new restaurants, and one of \u98df\u5ba2<\/i>\u2019s 38 essential restaurants in America. In 2013, Shepherd was named one of \u7f8e\u98df\u8207\u7f8e\u9152<\/i>\u2019s Best New Chefs in America, and the following year he received the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest.<\/p>\n
Shepherd went on to be a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in 2019 and was named Chef of the Year by \u7f85\u535a\u5831\u544a<\/i> that same year. His first cookbook, Cook Like a Local<\/i>, published in 2019, was nominated for a James Beard Book Award. In 2023, he launched the TV show Eat Like a Local<\/i> on Houston\u2019s KPRC-TV, which has earned two Lone Star Emmy Awards.<\/p>\n
Alongside his restaurant and nonprofit work, Shepherd has become a respected wine writer and storyteller, blending culinary perspective with deep exploration of winemakers and their craft. In 2024, he was named Editor in Chef for \u7f8e\u98df\u8207\u7f8e\u9152<\/i>, where he brings his chef\u2019s lens to coverage of food, wine, hospitality culture, and mentorship. That same year, \u8461\u8404\u9152\u611b\u597d\u8005<\/i> named him to their prestigious Future 40 list, recognizing trailblazers shaping the future of wine and dining.<\/p>\n
Shepherd began his fine dining career at Brennan\u2019s of Houston\u2014both in the kitchen and as wine director, later opening Catalan Food & Wine in 2006, which was named one of Esquire<\/i>\u2019s Best New Restaurants in America.<\/p>\n
He also co-founded the Southern Smoke Foundation, which has distributed more than $15.6 million in direct emergency relief and funded more than 10,000 no-cost counseling sessions for food and beverage workers.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1439,"template":"","class_list":["post-429","people","type-people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/people"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_tw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}