CFF lineup revealed

Houston's top chefs and hottest new restaurants star in farm-to-table food festival returning this fall

A Dallas-based food festival will return to Houston for its second year. Chefs for Farmers will be held Saturday, September 30 and Sunday, October 1 at Autry Park, the new mixed-use development near the intersection of Allen Parkway and Shepherd Drive.

Saturday’s event is a barbecue-themed happening titled “You Can’t Handle the Truth.” Led by Truth BBQ owner Leonard Botello IV, the event will also feature chefs such as Christian Hernandez (Albi), Travis Lenig (Field & Tides), and three representatives from Blood Bros. BBQ: co-owner Robin Wong, chef Arash Kharat, and pitmaster/co-owner Quy Hoang.

It also offers a first taste of four restaurants that will open at Autry Park later this year: Annabelle Brasserie; an all-day restaurant from Berg Hospitality; Turner's Cut, a luxurious steakhouse from Berg Hospitality; Auden, a globally inspired, vegetable-forward restaurant; and Mayahuel, a Mexico City-inspired cantina and cocktail bar.

At Sunday’s “Flavor Face Off,” attendees will vote for their favorite creation from a roster of more than 25 participants. Headliners include James Beard Award winner Hugo Ortega (representing Backstreet Cafe), Top Chef finalist Evelyn Garcia and her business partner Henry Lu (Jun), CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Rising Star Chef of the Year nominee Jerrod Zifchak (Navy Blue), and James Beard Award semifinalist Alex Au-Yeung. (See below for a full list of participants for both days.)

Early bird pricing for both days is $135 for general admission and $180 for VIP passes that offer entering an hour earlier. Prices rise to $150 and $200, respectively, on Saturday, August 19. Tickets include food, wine, beer, cocktails, live entertainment, and more.

Having covered the “chefs” aspect of the event, let’s turn to “for farmers.” According to press materials, the event worked with local nonprofit Urban Harvest to identify local farmers who will supply ingredients for the chef’s dishes. CFF hopes to foster relationships between the participating chefs and farmers in the hope of exposing the farmers to new customers.

A representative tells CultureMap that each participating chef is given a $200 stipend to spend with the local farmer they partner with. Confirmed farms include Animal Farm, Stakar Farms Wagyu, Laughing Frog Farm, Blackwood Educational Land Institute, and Verdegreens Farms.

In addition, the Houston Food Bank will be on-site promoting its Empty Bowls fundraiser. Created by local artists, each $25 bowl sold benefits the food bank. Last year, CFF donated $5,000 to Urban Harvest and $5,000 to the Houston Food Bank, which also raised an additional $1,500 from selling bowls.

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Participants for Saturday, September 30

Albi – Christian Hernandez
Annabelle Brasserie and Turner’s Cut – Russell Kirkham
Auden – Kirthan Shenoy
Blood Bros BBQ – Robin Wong, Quy Hoang, Arash Kharat
Chi’Lantro BBQ – Ryan Sumagaysay
Craft Creamery – Steve Marques
Davis St. at Hermann Park – Mark Holley
Field & Tides – Travis Lenig
Georgia James – Greg Peters
Loch Bar – Aaron Panganiban
Mayahuel – Luis Robledo Richards
SmallBites Mini Donuts – Erika Villarreal
Truth BBQ – Leonard Botello IV
Wolfgang Puck Catering Houston Commissary – Larry de la Flor

Participants for Sunday, October 1

Amrina – Jassi Bindra
Andiron – Mario Da Silva
Backstreet Café – Hugo Ortega
Brasserie 19 – Michael J. Hoffman
Craft Creamery – Steve Marques
Degust – Micah Rideout
Eau Tour – Kent Domas
Eunice – Drake Leonards
Frankie B. Mandola’s Catering – Adolfo Monjaras
Hidden Omakase – Marcos Juarez
Jūn – Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu
Lees Den – Maria Gonzalez
Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette – Luis Machuca
Lick Honest Ice Creams – Anthony Sobotik & Kendall Melton
Local Foods – Geoff Hundt
Lulu’s – Jose Monterrosa
Magnol French Baking – Otto Sanchez
Mayahuel – Luis Robledo Richards
Navy Blue – Jerrod Zifchak
Nobu Houston – Joe Murphy
Ostia – Travis McShane and Ray Melendi
Phat Eatery – Alex Au-Yeung
Rainbow Lodge – Mark Schmidt
Roma – Shanon Scott
Rosewood Beef – Michael Scott
Th Prsrv – David Skinner
Toro Toro – Paul Peddle
Wild Concepts – German Mosquera

Photo by Robert Jacob Lerma

Sample dishes from more than 25 restaurants at Chefs for Farmers.

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Destination-worthy baked goods

Texas influencer's monthly bakery pop-ups are road trip worthy

Joy the Baker Joy Wilson Popup Bellville

Photo by Alexander Irwin

Houston resident and cookbook author Joy Wilson has opened a bakery pop-up in Bellville, just an hour's drive from the city.

It sounds like a Hallmark movie plotline: a big-city girl moves to a small town, buys a rambling Victorian house, and opens a bakery.

But in this version, the heroine is cookbook author, food blogger, and social media star Joy Wilson — better known as Joy the Baker. And the bakery is Texas Bakehouse, a monthly pop-up hosted behind her 1800s home in Bellville, just about an hour’s drive from Houston.

Photo by Alexander Irwin

Houston resident and cookbook author Joy Wilson has opened a bakery pop-up in Bellville, just an hour's drive from the city.

Wilson relocated to Houston in 2023 after closing the original Bakehouse in New Orleans, making the move to be closer to her now-husband. The pair settled in Rice Military and dedicated weekends to riding their motorcycles west, with Bellville quickly capturing Wilson’s imagination.

“One day we were having lunch out there and I said, ‘I'm going to move here. I think I'm going to buy a house and move here,’” Wilson recalls. “My husband was like, ‘Let's do it.’ And it was just as simple as that decision.”

Once a month, Wilson opens the doors to her backyard bakeshop for pre-ordered bakery box pickups. Each box includes four items anchored by a signature giant chocolate chip cookie, with the remaining pastries rotating seasonally.

The soft opening in November featured sweet potato pie, lemon poppy seed kolaches, and chai-spiced apple fritters. December followed with cranberry crumble galettes, cheddar and chive scones, and oversized Linzer cookies.

After taking January off to recover from the holidays, Texas Bakehouse is back in February with pre-orders open for pickup on Saturday, February 7.

This month’s Galentine’s Day offering is an eight-inch, heart-shaped chocolate cake filled with fresh raspberries and whipped cream, finished with Swiss meringue buttercream and a piped Drake lyric — a nod to Wilson’s viral Drake on Cake era. Buyers can choose between “No new friends” or “Nice for what,” with each cake accompanied by a locally made floral arrangement from Wanderlust and Wild.

Lemon blueberry biscuits and the bakery’s signature chocolate chip cookies will also be available for walk-up purchase from 9 a.m. to noon, served with a complimentary cup of Bellville’s own Interstellar Coffee.

For Wilson, the Bakehouse was always part of the plan.

“I knew that if I was moving out here, I wanted a house with a story, a place people would want to visit and experience,” she says. “I’ve been here about a year and a half, and it just took time to get a grip on the nuts and bolts of the house. But I always intended to have a little bakery pop-up here.”

The location also makes it an easy day trip for Houstonians looking to get out of the city. Texas Bakehouse sits just blocks from Bellville’s downtown square, where visitors can wander antique shops and explore the small-town charm before heading home.

“People can come here, pick up baked goods, have a visit, and then go experience the town and community, too, all on foot,” Wilson says. “That feels very special.”

Looking ahead, Wilson plans to expand the Bakehouse with intimate cooking classes, likely beginning in fall 2026, inspired by the small-group classes she once hosted in New Orleans.

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Texas Bakehouse is located at 310 E Palm Street in Bellville, Texas, about an hour west of Houston. Pre-orders and pickup details are available at shop.joythebaker.com.

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