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Chris Shepherd – Sharing Food & Life Experiences

Chef Chris Shepherd

I am really pleased to have Chef Chris Shepherd of Houston, TX on the show. Chef Chris Shepherd is a James Beard Award winner and was recently named by the Robbery Report magazine as the best chef in the world. He has helped change the landscape of the Houston culinary scene since opening Underbelly in 2012.

What we covered in this episode

Chef Chris Shepherd is the most recognizable Chef in Houston, TX.
In 2019 he was named the Chef of the Year (in the world) by Robb Report, the luxury-lifestyle magazine based in Los Angeles.
Houston is known to be the most diverse city in the US. Chef Chris Shepherd describes the food scene in Houston.
Food takes you to local ethnic places and you get to learn from people and they learn from you. And just sharing life experiences. And that's it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
His cookbook “Cook like a Local” is broken into six chapters dedicated to integral ingredients of the unique Houston melting pot: fish sauce, chiles, soy, rice, spices and corn.
When Chef Chris Shepherd talks about “local food” he is not talking about locality of ingredient, he is talking about locality of culture.
Chef Chris Shepherd says that his cookbook is a love letter to Houston, and to the US. And it's a love letter to accepting and to start to learn and understand where we're going as people.
His has an unconventional approach to the restaurant business. He opened Underbelly in 2012 and closed it in 2018 even if the business was good.
With One Fifth Chef Chris Shepherd decided that with the five year lease he will have five restaurants in five years with five different concepts: year one Steakhouse, year two Romance languages (French, Spanish, and Italian), year three Mediterranean (Greek inspired), year fourvGulf Coast cuisine.
To learn more about our my conversation with Chef Shepherd, click on the link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/Chef_Chris_Shepherd

Links to other episodes in Houston

Chef Drake Leonards – Eunice

Baker Matthieu Cabon – Magnol French Baking

Submitted questions from podcast listeners

How to use fish sauce?

What I learned is that there should be two ingredients in fish sauces. There should be anchovies and there should be salt. And that's it. For a home consumer to use fish sauce make sure you are buying quality. And that's pretty easy to do at this point. Then it's like how do you balance something so super funky that you need something sweet, that you need something spicy, that you need something to tone it back. You need some acidic. And it's just learning about balance. I think fish sauce is the perfect day to inspire you to learn balance in a dish because most cooks cook with salt, pepper and maybe a little bit of lemon juice or lime juice or something on a dish. But it's more about understanding the balance of sweetness, sour, the spice, the funk. Fish sauce is a perfect ingredient for young cooks, especially to understand their palate and to understand balance and flavors.

Where to use fish sauce?

If you are going to brines a chicken. I think for use it in a little bit of fish sauce into it gives it that “you'll never know it is there” spice or flavor profile. It is perfect in Bolognaise sauce. You had a little bit in your Bolognaise and it just gives it that umami richness. If you aren't looking to do predominantly a Vietnamese or Thai influenced flavor, that you're adding just a little bit of sodium and more of that richness of fermentation and that richness of umami, that flavor contrast that you can't find, that you can't buy, that it's there and you have to use these ingredients then I think for fish sauce is the absolutely perfect way to put those things in there. A little bit in a vinaigrette, a little bit in a braising.

Chef Chris Shepherd chicken wings recipe?

Caramelized fish sauce, chicken wings. Greatest thing ever. Roast the chicken wings in the oven or grill them.Then have a little sauté pan, toast a little bit of garlic, shaved garlic, add some honey or white sugar, caramelized that fish sauce, add lime juice. Toss the wings and you're good. A few chilies in there like Sereno or Jalapeño.

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The best way to start to have a conversation is through food on the table. Then you can establish friendship conversations and learning from each other and not just talking about food all the time, but talking about life.

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Learning from people is one of the greatest things that we could possibly do. Just share stories and have conversations. It's the easiest thing to do.

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You need to quit cooking for yourself and start cooking for the culture. You could cook free at that point.

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People love challenges. Status quo is one of the worst things for people that is trying to just sit there and do the same things over and over and over again.

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I tell people all the time that the only thing that holds you back is yourself. And that's the honest truth. Because you have to try and push to try to learn and you'll find inspirations anywhere and everywhere.

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Creativity is probably the most important thing, it's about seeing things and using things and touching things. Technique is cool. But at the end of the day, it's got to taste good.

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