Underbelly

Underbelly is the perfect title to tell "the Story of Houston Food", and when it comes to Houston, there is no better storyteller than Chef Chris Shepherd. Chris? upcoming restaurant shares his journey as a chef in a city he describes as "the most secretive and dynamic culinary destination in the country.? Beneath the well-known oily surface lies an endless array of local ingredients and...

Ask Chris Shepherd how he feels about his charcuterie program at Underbelly and he grins like a proud father, "[When it's] in full stride, it's one of the best I've ever seen. We do a good job." Here, where Shepherd and his butcher Javier Salvador oversee the blossoming and noteworthy meat curing process, no statement could be truer. The custom of salting & curing meat (or pickling in the case...

It's time to update the Eater 38, your answer and ours to any question that begins, "Can you recommend a restaurant?" This highly elite group covers the entire city, spans myriad cuisines, and collectively satisfies all of your restaurant needs, save for those occasions when you absolutely must spend half a paycheck. Every couple of months, we'll be adding pertinent restaurants that were...

Not since 1992 when RDG + Bar Annie chef/owner Robert Del Grande was named Best Chef Southwest has a Houston chef been awarded that prestigious title. Underbelly chef Chris Shepherd won that award on Monday night in New York City, after having been nominated with fellow Houston chefs Hugo Ortega of Hugo's/Caracol and Justin Yu of Oxheart. This was a record year for the number of local...

Last month the James Beard Foundation announced this year's semifinalists, and the names of the finalists were broadcast via a livestream earlier today. Houston scored big with a relatively lengthy list of names. In the Best Chef Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, OK, TX, UT) category are Hugo Ortega (Hugo's), Chris Shepherd (Underbelly) and Justin Yu (Oxheart). This is Yu's first nomination, and both...

A meal at Underbelly is a celebration of Houston's rich culinary traditions. By foraging for the city's historical food traditions and recipes, chef Chris Shepherd takes diners through a fantastic journey of the city's culinary diversity. The menu doesn't offer a standard format of meal courses and encourages sharing. Specialties include seared king mackerel, tomato gazpacho, seared warsaw...