Chef Departs Hip Hotel

Popular chef leaves stylish hotel restaurant, but where will she land next?

Since it opened last year, part of the appeal of Main Kitchen at the stylish JW Marriott Houston Downtown hotel has been the presence of executive chef Erin Smith, but that time has come to an end. The chef turned in her resignation on Friday. Rather than have her work two more weeks, the hotel decided to make it her last day.

The Houston native came to the JW after well-regarded stints at Plonk! Bistro and the Clumsy Butcher group, where she created the opening menu for Blacksmith; her resume also includes stints working in New York for celebrity chefs Mario Batali and Thomas Keller. At Main Kitchen, she earned a CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Chef of the Year nomination for her use of local and seasonal ingredients

"There isn't any juice or gossip," regarding her departure Smith writes in a text message. "I've been considering leaving for awhile but wanted things to be going more smoothly before I left . . . It was a great experience."

Although she hasn't decided on her next move yet, Smith thinks Main Kitchen did overcome the problem of attracting diners from outside the hotel, which has always been a challenge for high-profile local chefs working at hotels. Instead, she faced a slightly different challenge — balancing the needs of appealing to hotel guests who want familiar fare while traveling with more adventurous locals.

"I feel like Houston supported Main Kitchen," Smith writes. "You want everyone (hotel guests and local patrons) to be happy, and that can be a challenge. Main Kitchen has a very loyal Houston crowd, and I've had the pleasure of getting to know many of them."

Executive sous chef Jelle Vandenbroucke has replaced Smith as the executive chef. The Belgian native brings experience at two-star Michelin restaurants as well as with a number of Four Seasons properties to the role.

"Erin was instrumental in Main Kitchen's concept and part of the pre opening team," said Natalie Wiseman, vice president of sales and marketing for the hotel in a statement. "We wish her all the best on her future endeavors. We are repositioning the restaurant with new exciting menus in January."

While Smith ponders her next move, diners might find her assisting her fiance Patrick Feges at Southern Goods in the Heights. The restaurant led by former Underbelly sous chef Lyle Bento and business partner Charles Bishop has been busy since its well-publicized opening this summer.

Erin Smith's time at Main Kitchen has come to an end.

Chef Erin Smith JW Marriott Houston Downtown January 2014

Photo by Morris Malakoff

Erin Smith's time at Main Kitchen has come to an end.

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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