Michelle Wallace Chef, Pitmaster, and TV personality. This St. Louis native sparked a love for food and technique while studying Healthcare Administration at Texas Southern University. Houston and its vast diversity became a driving force to her approach to food and culture. Fusing formal training at The Art Institute of Houston, including skills she gathered while living abroad in China, with her natural skills, Wallace’s palette and techniques evolved into the innovative force she is today.
Wallace worked her way from serving the front of the house at Houston’s Restaurant, to tending bar, to a management position. Her dedication to the culinary world led her to work under Houston-famed chef Mark Holley at Pesce and to cook personally for various athletes in the city. In 2017, Wallace teamed up with veteran Houston Pitmaster Greg Gatlin of Gatlin’s BBQ. She spent just over 6 years learning and developing her skill set as a chef and pitmaster. Mining her childhood love for sandwiches, she created specialty menu items. From a customer-pleasing house-smoked pastrami to a craveable smoked bologna sandwich, Wallace creations were a hit and were written about in various publications including Texas Monthly magazine.
Chef Michelle Wallace, based in Houston, launched B’tween Sandwich Co. in 2023. Starting with local farmers markets and pop-up events, B’tween Sandwich Co. offers comfort food, smoked goods and traditional fare, blending various culinary techniques with cultural influence for creative sandwich lovers and beyond.
In 2024, Chef Wallace competed on Bravo’s Top Chef (Season 21), reaching the top 6 and winning the Fan Favorite award. Her other notable television appearances include Food Network’s Bobby’s Triple Threat (S4) BBQ Brawl (S3), Netflix’s High on the Hog docuseries (S1), and BET’s The Recipe: Juneteenth Celebration. Chef Wallace was also honored as a James Beard Taste Twenty Chef (’22 & ’25) for the Taste America culinary series and as a Rising Star Chef for CultureMap Houston (2021).
7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
