Wine Guy Wednesday

Chris Shepherd breaks bread with chefs and musicians at new conversation series

I wanted to tell you about something new that I have coming up that we have been working on. I am starting a new conversation series called “Breaking Bread” which is going to be part of the Live at the Founder’s Club series at the Hobby Center.

Why “Breaking Bread?” I have always said that breaking bread at the table is one of the last true forms of building community. When I had restaurants, I would serve whole loaves of bread uncut and have people break them together to join a communal dining experience where they could have conversations — a breaking of awkward silence if you didn’t know people.

Breaking bread opens the door for talking and learning over a meal and to build a community that might not have existed before. It is the ice breaker for a lot of people to learn about each other and break down walls and barriers that we have unintentionally put up because of fear of the unknown. It’s not just a saying but a way of thinking that has shifted my life to want to learn about people.

Through this new Breaking Bread conversation series, I will share the stories of people I look up to and ask them to tell stories they haven’t told before about what led them here to this moment on stage with me.

Moving this series to Founders Club at the Hobby Center is even more special for me since I’ve had such a great time working with the team to update the food and drink menus so guests can have a really wonderful experience from the time they arrive. We have worked to redo the food menu to make it fun and approachable with items like Full Tilt hot dogs, braised beef birria taquitos, coffee roasted beets, and Altima Caviar with sour cream & onion Pringles just to name a few.

The wine list is filled with delicious things that I just want to drink all the time. Pierre Gimonnet 1er cru Blanc de Blanc Brut, yep. Marine Layer Vermentino, The Hilt Estate Chardonnay, Robert Sinskey Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, also yes! Want more? North Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir, Produttori Del Barbaresco Barbaresco, and Cruse Wine Co. Monkey Jacket Red Blend are all available, just to name a few.

Then the cocktails are based on the classics. This is what we should have when we go out to our theaters downtown — delicious things to eat and drink while watching amazing shows!

I have the opportunity to have personal conversations with my friends, who also happen to be incredible artists and even better people.

Here is a quick look at the lineup from the Hobby Center:

“Breaking Bread” 2026 Conversation Series

Bun B: Wednesday, April 8, 7:30pm
Grammy-nominated American rapper and Houston legend Bun B sits down with Chris for an unfiltered conversation on music, culture, and a career that keeps reinventing itself. From pioneering rapper to Rice University professor and trusted civic voice, Bun B will reflect on the moments that shaped him. The two will also get into his jump into the restaurant world and how Trill Burgers became a citywide obsession, plus his move into podcasting and storytelling — and what it means to build a legacy that stretches far beyond the mic.

Joe Kwon: Saturday, May 16, 7:30pm
Known to many as the cellist of The Avett Brothers, Joe Kwon joins Chris for a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation about curiosity, craft, and creativity. Born in South Korea and raised in High Point, North Carolina, the self-described foodie shares his roots on stages around the world as they explore his path from lifelong musician — with a detour through computer science — to artist, wine enthusiast, and collaborator, reflecting on how discipline and instinct shape everything he pursues, from music to food. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how passions evolve, how ideas connect across worlds, and why a melody or a shared meal can mean more than the moment itself.

A Michelin Roundtable with Felipe Riccio, Emmanuel Chavez, and Mayank Istwal: Saturday, June 13, 7:30pm
Three of Houston’s Michelin-starred chefs — Emmanuel Chavez (Tatemó), Felipe Riccio (March), and Mayank Istwal (Musaafer) — join Chris for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about what a star really means for their kitchens and their teams. They’ll debate whether rankings push the industry forward or hold it back, reflect on the turning points that shaped their paths, and share the lessons behind becoming some of the city’s most celebrated chefs. It’s a rare behind-the-scenes look at success, pressure, creativity, and what it takes to build something that lasts.

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Send Chris an email at chris@chrisshepherd.is.

Chris Shepherd won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2014. The Southern Smoke Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded with his wife Lindsey Brown, has distributed more than $15 million to hospitality workers in crisis through its Emergency Relief Fund. Catch his TV show, Eat Like a Local, every Saturday at 10 am on KPRC Channel 2 or on YouTube.

Photo by Tiffany Hofeldt

Chris Shepherd will host three Breaking Bread conversations.

chris shepherd performing-arts

coming attractions

Houston museum devotes 2027 exhibit to Black magazine photographers

Color photo by LaMonte McLemore of a Black woman in a bright coral suit set against dark brown wood and a black iron fence

image courtesy Govinda Gallery. © LaMonte McLemore Archive

LaMonte McLemore's Fashion Model inkjet print is included in the MFAH's Bold and Brilliant: The Rise of Black American Magazines, 1930 - 1970 exhibit.

Printed magazines may not hold a place of prominence in today’s online world, but these periodicals were the lifeblood for news for more than a century. Life, Look and Colliers were household names that featured the work of Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, and Ray Bradbury (among others).

In the Black community, Ebony, Essence, and Jet, employed writers such as Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. And one of their defining features was photography.

Now, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is celebrating the photojournalism and artistry of the Black photographers who traveled the world to capture images for these publications – and many others. Bold and Brilliant: The Rise of Black American Magazines, 1930 - 1970 is the first dedicated to the photographers who worked for the more than 300 general-interest magazines that were published across the country for the Black community, spanning the eras of the Great Migration, Civil Rights activism, and the Black Is Beautiful movement.

On view from February 28 to May 31, 2027, Bold and Brilliant will present more than 100 images by 50 photographers, shown alongside the vintage spreads in which they originally appeared. Because nearly all of these images were produced for publication in magazines — the primary way readers of this era encountered photography — most of these photographs are being displayed for the first time in the exhibition.

It will be organized by editorial section, with themes such as fashion and beauty, food and home, entertaining, sports, music, nightclubs, professions, education, and activities, mirroring how viewers and readers would’ve encountered them on the printed page. The result is an exhibit that explores the broad and dynamic Black cultural life in the mid-century.

“This groundbreaking exhibition builds on archival recovery efforts to locate the work of hundreds of photographers, most of them overlooked until now,” said Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH. “The scholarship behind Bold and Brilliant demonstrates how visual culture reflects but also influences identity, self-representation and community allegiances — something that is at the heart of magazines and museums alike.”

Among those included in the exhibit are Nat Brown, a largely self-taught photographer who shot for Ebony, Hue, and Jet, ; Stephen Deutsch, a Hungarian immigrant to the United States who took photos for Duke, Ebony, and Tan Confessions; and Gordon Parks, a photographer for Circuit’s Smart Woman, Ebony, Essence, Jet, and Newspic who said he “chose my camera as a weapon against all the things I dislike about America — poverty, racism, discrimination,” and who was also a prominent writer and director.

Accompanying the exhibit is a fully illustrated catalogue that includes biographies of the featured photographers and essays by the exhibit’s co-curators, Lisa Volpe, curator of photography at the MFAH; Anjuli Lebowitz, the Judy Glickman Lauder Curator of Photography at the Portland Museum of Art; and Brian Piper, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Exhibitgoers and readers will also find essays on jazz by Jason Moran, writings about beauty by Tina Beyoncé Knowles, Doug Glanville’s observations on sports, and more.

The museum has partnered with the University of Houston to produce and host an archival database of the newly rediscovered publications. When complete, it’s anticipated to include more than 2,500 entries.

More information, including tickets, is available on the MFAH website.

$Color photo by \u200bLaMonte McLemore of a Black woman in a bright coral suit set against dark brown wood and a black iron fence$

LaMonte McLemore's Fashion Model inkjet print is included in the MFAH's Bold and Brilliant: The Rise of Black American Magazines, 1930 - 1970 exhibit.

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