Chris Williams


Founder, Lucille’s Hospitality Group | Founder + Executive Director, Lucille’s 1913

Classically trained in French, Mediterranean, West Indian and East African cuisine, Chris Williams was always destined to be a chef; he simply didn’t know it yet. Drawn to study food from a young age, he attended Le Cordon Blue in Austin, Texas and soon began traveling to work in kitchens across the world. His insatiable hunger to learn everything about world cuisine unexpectedly led him back to his own family tree, where he discovered a history steeped in trailblazing culinary advances and mouthwatering Southern recipes. A tribute to his great grandmother and culinary pioneer Lucille B. Smith — who is considered Texas’ first African American businesswoman, credited with everything from establishing one of the first college level commercial foods and technology departments in the U.S., at Prairie View A&M University to creating the first-ever All Purpose Hot Roll Mix in the country — Williams opened Lucille’s in August 2012 in the Museum District of Houston,Texas.

Pairing his great-grandmother’s ingenuity and Southern flair with flavors from his travels, Williams has since garnered national acclaim for his legacy-driven cooking style. A decade in the making, the namesake restaurant has since expanded into Lucille’s Hospitality Group — a culmination of concepts that channel the matriarch’s historic ingenuity. Williams’ most recent endeavor — his non-profit Lucille’s 1913 — mimics the ethos of his restaurant group and its namesake, functioning as a conscious community collective that is building a vertically integrated ecosystem to combat food insecurity and waste; creating training and employment opportunities in traditionally under-resourced neighborhoods; and empowering communities to discover a self-sustainable livelihood through food. To date, Chef Chris and the Lucille’s 1913 team have provided more than 1,000,000 meals to Houstonians in need since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A 2022 James Beard Award Finalist and 2023 JBA Semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur, Williams continues to make a name for himself as a community builder within the culinary world and beyond. He is part of Bon Appetit’s inaugural “Heads of the Table” Awards List, which honors the trailblazing, community-building, future-making leaders changing the restaurant industry; Nation’s Restaurant News’ 2022 Power List, which highlights the most innovative and inspiring people in the restaurant industry; a 2022 United Nations Global Citizen Awardee; Restaurant Hospitality’s 2021 Rising Star chef class; a recipient of the Houston Area Urban League’s Quentin Mease Community Service Award; and has served as the lone culinary cultural ambassador for the USA for four years, advancing food diplomacy in destinations like Slovenia, Croatia, and Ukraine.