Episode 25: Restaurants & Relief in Houston

Chef Chris Shepherd joins me to talk about how he changed his business model overnight from dine-in service to stocking HEB grocery stores with take-home meals, including king ranch casserole and wagyu burger helper. Chris is also the co-founder of Southern Smoke Foundation, an organization that’s providing direct relief to restaurant workers who have been laid off in the Covid-19 crisis. The need is great. For the last month, I’ve been working with Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation to raise funds, half of which we’re sending straight to Southern Smoke. This episode is at the intersection of some of the things I care about most: restaurants, the hospitality professionals who make them special, and, of course, casseroles.