What’s Cooking at This Year’s Southern Smoke Festival
Image: Courtesy of Daniel Ortiz
The Southern Smoke Foundation, a Houston-based nonprofit that provides resources to food and hospitality workers nationwide, is gearing up for its annual food festival, which doubles as its largest and most anticipated fundraiser.
On Saturday, October 4, more than 85 chefs, beverage professionals, and hospitality workers will showcase their culinary talents at Discovery Green, serving Houstonians and visitors alike unlimited samples of their creations.
Launched in 2015 by James Beard Award–winning chef Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown, executive director of Southern Smoke, the festival, now in its ninth year, just keeps getting better. This year marks the return of the Lexus VIP area, wine bar pop-ups, a YETI Culinary stage filled with live demonstrations, and an introduction to the 2025 Class of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs.
Whatever you do, with so many choices from dozens of chefs, it’s essential to go hungry and pace yourself (some even bring a disposable tray to hold all the dishes). Here’s a peek at some of the most anticipated bites from eight new chefs.
Houston chefs
Nicolas Vera and Stephanie Velasquez from Casaema
Two chefs behind this 2025 James Beard Finalist for Best New Restaurant are bringing their talents and reverence for masa to this year’s Southern Smoke. Vera and Velasquez will make their festival debut with a chicharron bocol olotillo (masa flour) blanco masa cake topped with chicharron pork belly and served with pickled curtido, a tangy fermented slaw.
Adrian Torres of Maximo
This 27-year-old chef is making waves in Houston’s dining scene following the revamp of West University Mexican restaurant Maximo. Festivalgoers can get a taste of Torres’s talent with his cachetada de barbacoa, tacos made with beef cheek that will be pressed into a plancha (griddle) to give each bite a bit of a crisp, while keeping the inside tender and fatty. Torres will garnish the dish with black garlic salsa tatemada (charred), and a green avocado salsa with onion, cilantro, and lime. If any indication of the flavor, just know the Spanish word cachetada literally translates to “slaps,” an English slang word for “amazing.”
Jason Ryczek of Little’s Oyster Bar
Seafood lovers, this one’s for you. Chef Ryczek is keeping it simple, yet appetizing and very Houston with a smoked foie gras placed on a dry-aged tuna banh mi.
Aaron Bludorn of Bludorn
Head over to the YETI Culinary Stage to see Bludorn’s chef skills live as he prepares a Shore Lunch, made up of pan-fried flounder and creamy wild mushroom risotto.
Out-of-towners
Kelly Jacques of Ayu Bakehouse
The co-owner of New Orleans’s Ayu Bakehouse, who’s also one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs this year, will serve her Boudin Boys, made complete with Lao Gan Ma chili oil.
Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel of Birdie’s
The chef behind Austin-based restaurant Birdie’s will present roasted sweet potatoes topped with a walnut-parmesan cream and parsley gremolata.
Joaquin Rodas of Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits
Rodas, the chef-owner of Bacchanal, will switch things up this year with a full buildout from the New Orleans–based wine bar, complete with wine, shaded seating, and duck fat confit chicken thighs served with grits and persimmon agrodolce.
Tyler Akin of Bastia
Making the trek from Philadelphia, Akin will share a slice of his Fishtown restaurant, which takes inspiration from Corsica and Sardinia in the Mediterranean. Grab a bite of his featured plate, which includes New Caledonian prawn and scallop served with Venere black rice, a wholegrain rice that hails from Italy.
General admission tickets are currently $225 and can be bought here.
