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Chef Chris Williams at Community Collective
Katie Stone challenges Chef Chris Williams to a cranberry recipe "cook-off", tastes some of the new dishes added to the menu at Late August, which was recently recognized by Michelin as a recommended restaurant, and learns more about Williams non-profit efforts at the Community Collective.
HOUSTON - In this holiday episode of Foodies and Friends, Katie Stone visits Chef Chris Williams (Lucille’s and Late August) at the Community Collective a large working kitchen that provides meals for the food insecure, and school children as well as training new chefs in a holistic approach to the food industry, and Katie challenges the Chef to a cranberry recipe cook-off!
Eager to share her mother’s (Cleverley Stone, founder of Houston Restaurant Weeks) cranberry side dish recipe and it’s surprisingly easy-to make ingredients and process, Katie challenges Chef Chris Williams to create a cranberry based dish. The chef responds with a Cranberry Crumble (see recipe below)
However, when it’s Katie’s turn, knife skills are questioned and the blender jams, producing a lot of laughter and culinary-skill comments from the Chef and Katie, as well as finally a refreshing cranberry side dish.
Chef Chris Williams Cranberry Crumble
- 4 ½ cups fresh cranberries
- Touch of salt
- ½ cup sugar
- Holiday Seasonings- Allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon
- Juice from 2 fresh oranges
- Quick oats
- Flour
- Brown sugar
- Pecans
- Butter
Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes
Cleverly & Katie’s Cranberry dish
- Cranberries
- 1 Apple - Cored & cut in chunks
- 1 Orange – including rind cut iin chunks
- Sugar – at least 1 cup - more to taste
Throw it all in blender. Add some orange juice to avoid jamming blender. Perhaps cut smaller pieces than Katie demonstrated- to avoid jamming blender. Perhaps use a food processor- to avoid jamming blender.
Scoop and serve.
The Community Collective
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chef Williams began serving food to those in need. After that experience, he founded his non-profit organization, Lucille’s 1913.
Lucille’s 1913 mission is built on three main pillars: combating food insecurity and waste, investing in training and employment, and empowering sustainability in the surrounding communities.
On a daily basis, the nonprofit prepares and delivers over 700 meals a day across Houston’s Sunnyside, Acres Homes, as well as the Third and Fifth Wards—which are among the city’s oldest and predominantly Black neighborhoods. Additionally, the nonprofit produces hundreds of meals daily for students attending the nearby Imani School, located close to the nonprofit’s kitchen.
Building community from the ground up, the nonprofit acquired 54 acres in Fort Bend County, a historically Black farming community since the Reconstruction era. The nonprofit then pays members of the community to grow food on the land, which they then sell to the surrounding area for 60 percent less than what is typically paid at grocery stores.
Tackling food waste is another problem Lucille’s 1913 has taken on. The nonprofit composts true waste, while it sends whole waste to its fermentation lab in the Fifth Ward. Onions, carrots, and lemon peels become seasoning powder. Collard stems, cucumbers, jalapeños, and okra are converted into ingredients for kimchi, hot sauce, and the Southern pickled condiment of choice, chow chow.
Training the next generation of chefs, Lucille’s 1913 also offers a culinary program for aspiring chefs and food professionals. The 12-week program targets underserved people living in the Houston area who have never worked in a kitchen. Not only do students learn knife skills and how to prepare foods, but they also rotate to work in the garden, the fermentation lab, and the food waste program for a more holistic approach to the industry. Graduates have gone on to work at Williams’ restaurants under Lucille’s Hospitality Group.
"They get to see how to grow from seed to harvest to production to responsible disposal," Williams said. "It can be a training ground for people who don’t have money to go to culinary school or the luxury of time."
The Community Collective is a 35,000-square-foot venue that houses the nonprofit’s offices and kitchens. His future plans involve continuing to "employ, empower, and nurture as many people as we can," and creating more access for people still facing barriers to entry in the culinary industry.
All of Williams’ ventures, his restaurant, nonprofit, and hospitality group, pay homage to his great-grandmother, Lucille Smith.
Produced by the Cleverley Stone Foundation, Foodies and Friends streams live on FOX LOCAL Tuesdays at 10:30am and repeats on Saturday mornings.
Watch older episodes of Foodies & Friends here.
The Cleverley Stone Foundation was created by Cleverley’s daughter, Katie Stone, to continue her Mother’s mission and legacy of supporting Houston Restaurant Weeks benefiting the Houston Food Bank, which takes place August 1st through Labor Day each year. Together, Houstonians and Houston restaurant owners have raised more than $18 million over the past 20 years to support the Houston Food Bank and the hunger needs of our community.
Houston Restaurant Weeks and its sister event Eat Drink HTX is the largest annual fundraiser for the nation’s largest food bank. The Houston Food Bank services an 18-county area in southeast Texas
More about the foundation https://thecleverleystonefoundation.org
Houston Food Bank – houstonfoodbank.org
COMING IN 2025
EatDrinkHTX - February 15 - 28
Houston Restaurant Weeks – August 1 - September 1