A life of service
Since its humble start, Southern Smoke has become major culinary event
Bread of Life CEO Catherine Garcia Flowers finds a blessing in the storm.
The Houston restaurant industry is well versed in taking care of its own. When waiters, bartenders and chefs fall on hard times, there is typically a pop-up dinner, barbecue or bake sale for financial support.
So when chef Chris Shepherd learned that his friend, sommelier Antonio Gianola, had multiple sclerosis, he stepped into action, organizing a fundraiser set for fall 2015. The initial plans were for a wine dinner at Shepherd’s now-closed Underbelly restaurant. But things escalated, and the intimate dinner blossomed into a full-fledged, live-fire culinary event called Southern Smoke.
“Suddenly streets were getting blocked off, and there was a stage and lighting and a lot more,” Shepherd said, recalling the first year.
A lot more is quite an understatement. The James Beard Award-winning chef asked some of his industry friends — who happen to be some of the nation’s biggest names in barbecue and Southern foodways — to participate. They all said yes, including brisket king Aaron Franklin of Austin, plus wholehog maestro Rodney Scott and chef Sean Brock, both of South Carolina. That first Southern Smoke in October 2015 turned the parking lots of Underbelly, the Hay Merchant bar and Blacksmith coffee shop into a block party where Houston foodies ate and drank their way through superstar-chef food, wine, beer and cocktails. It raised $181,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Energized by the outpouring of support, Shepherd and his team vowed to make Southern Smoke an annual to-do that has grown each year in both attendance and money raised. The 2018 event in September brought in $425,000. To date, Southern Smoke has raised more than $1.3 million.
“I can’t raise $100,000 myself. I can’t donate that myself,” Shepherd said. “We do it by the way we know how — by cooking and throwing a party and having a good time.”
That good time continues to attract formidable volunteer efforts from near and far. Top Houston chefs — Hugo Ortega, Justin Yu, Ryan Pera, Manabu Horiuchi and Brandi Key among them — are involved year after year; famed restaurateur and star of Nexflix’s “Ugly Delicious” David Chang added star power in 2017.
James Beard Award winner Edouardo Jordan, chef of JuneBaby and Salare restaurants in Seattle, said coming to the 2018 iteration was an easy decision: “It’s part of my ethos to give back and help the community. I know Chris and know what he’s doing.”
James Beard-honored Arizona chef Chris Bianco, considered the country’s finest pizza maker, also flew in this year. “It took me almost no seconds to say I’ll be there,” Bianco said. “We can all do something, we can all give something. The world needs a lot of things right now. It’s great to know the money is going to people who need it.”
Southern Smoke’s donations still include the MS Society but have expanded to other organizations such as Legacy Community Health, the Gulf Seafood Foundation, Hurricane Harvey relief efforts and its own foundation, Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Fund, which assists food-and-beverage-industry professionals in need.
Pitmaster Billy Durney of Hometown Bar B Que in New York, whose own restaurant was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, said one of the reasons he signed up for 2018 Southern Smoke was to learn how to put on fundraising events at that scale. He said he wants to help grow Southern Smoke and create other events with his barbecue brethren that give back to the community.
“In our industry, there’s nobody who does it better than Chris,” Durney said.
Shepherd said the parking lot was still being cleaned the morning after the event in September when he got a call from the mother of a man in the Houston restaurant community who had a life-threatening illness. The man’s insurance was maxed out — could they help? The Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Fund cut a check for $98,000 that day.
“It brought tears to a lot of people here,” Shepherd said. “This is something we keep doing because there’s a lot of need out there.”
Shepherd says he remains astonished by the amount his event has raised. And that an idea for a fundraising dinner turned into one of Houston’s biggest culinary events.
“I know it sounds corny, but I keep telling everyone if you’re not willing to stand on the edge of the water and jam your foot into it to make a wave, then the wave never starts,” he said. “You have to start somewhere.”