For Chef Jonathan Rhodes, cooking is about culture. Inspired by the desire to feed and provide for his community, Chef Jonny decided to take action by attending culinary school at the Art institute of Houston. Chef Jonny's work experience is founded in time at several high-profile restaurants including Gramercy Tavern, The Inn at Dos Brisas, and Oxheart. During this time Rhodes was inspired to launch the Jensen Chronicles — a pop-up restaurant serving dishes that told the story of poverty on Jensen Drive.
Named after Rhodes’ childhood neighborhood, The Jensen Chronicles not only helped Rhodes hone his culinary identity, but also served as motivation for the young chef to pursue additional education via a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Houston-Downtown. Culminating these experiences, Rhodes' ventured out to create Indigo — a neo-soulfood fine dining experience, featuring a tasting menu focused on dishes inspired by a blend of the suffrage of Aboriginal/ Black/ African Americans, his personal experiences and Houston's Greater 5th Ward neighborhood where he grew up.
Making its debut in July 2018, Indigo brought a physical structure to the tastes of the Jensen Chronicles. Chef Rhodes' presented a trio of rotating five-course tasting menus that were meant to not only tantalize the senses, but also provoke conversation about the history, culture, and social experiences that have shaped and guided Afro American foodways.
For his work with Indigo, Chef Jonny earned a semi-finalist nomination for James Beard Foundation in 2019 for Rising Star Chef of the Year Award, while Indigo also earned top spots on Food & Wine, GQ, Eater and Texas Monthly’s Best New Restaurants Lists, as well as TIME’s “World’s 100 Greatest Places of 2019.” Before closing its doors in 2021, Rhodes had already calculated how to convert the farm to table restaurant experience into a self-sustainable grocery store titled, Broham Fine Soulfood & Groceries supplied by Rhodes’ nearby Farm(s) titled, Food Fight Farms. Leaving his monumental restaurant in the past to take on the challenge, Food Apartheid & Agricultural Oppression in the local community not only by constructing an eclectic 6 acre farm, but a retail space for those products; as well as products from other local farms and ranches.
From Jensen Chronicles, Indigo to Broham & Food Fight Farms Chef Rhodes' mission is to continue advancing the culture through agriculture and landownership as it represents the sacrifice and beauty of the Afro American experience — Self- Sustainable grocery store born out of necessity, but curated with love and skill. Striving to continue to shed light on the social responsibility of food preparation through his current initiative, Food Fight Farms future mission is to create more independent land ownership as means for producing food for ones-self or to barter.
