2025 HOUSTON RISING STARS AWARDS

It’s been over half a decade since we last set our eyes on Houston, and in that time the city has grown, shifted, and redefined itself as one of the most multifaceted food cities in the nation. Once overlooked in conversations about America’s culinary capitals, Houston is now punching confidently in the same ring as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—though always in its own lane. The city’s investment in food and beverage speaks for itself: Houstonians spend a greater percentage of their food dollars in restaurants than residents of any other American city. What makes this city remarkable is its insistence on being unabashedly itself: a sprawling, international hub where a patchwork quilt of cultures overlaps, mingles, and ultimately builds a shared identity without ever diluting its roots. In Houston, what it means to be Texan is diversifying and evolving right before our eyes.

On the cutting edge of Mexican cuisine, Houston chefs are rewriting the story of what has too often been reduced to Tex-Mex shorthand. Chef Hugo Ortega lit the spark two decades ago, and today a new generation is carrying it forward. It is both culinary technique and cultural resistance, grounding the city’s Mexican community in pride, heritage, and reclamation. But Houston’s story doesn’t rest on one cuisine. Barbecue, long mythologized as the state’s claim to fame, is also evolving here. Beef—and thereby brisket—may still be king, but Houston is giving pork ribs and sausage their rightful place in the trinity. While many American food cities are captivated by competition, the hospitality industry in Houston is proving that the most earnest and sustainable path forward is one walked together.

Houston’s hospitality scene is evolving with a sense of shared purpose. It thrives not on competition, but on collaboration. It refuses to homogenize, instead celebrating the unique voices and cultures that make the city a culinary heavyweight. From the smoke pits to the molinos, from the redfish farms south of the city to the crafty pop-ups within the Inner Loop, Houston is defining for itself what it means to be a modern American food and beverage city—and casting its stature across the national stage.