Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Dallas native Chad Houser founded Café Momentum with a mission to transform young lives by equipping teens aged 15-19 with life skills, education, and employment opportunities at an award- winning restaurant and culinary training facility. As founder, CEO, and executive chef, Houser jokingly describes his ten-year-old nonprofit as “taking kids out of jail and teaching them to play with knives and fire.” All jokes aside, his hard work has paid off. After spending 17 years as a chef, Houser sold his restaurant shares to devote his full attention to his role at Café Momentum where he teaches life, social, and employment skills to Dallas’s most at-risk youth. In 2020, Houser launched Cafe Momentum’s expansion initiative, creating a national team dedicated to scaling the model for youth justice across the country. Café Momentum has expanded beyond Dallas to Atlanta and Pittsburgh, with a fourth location slated to open in Denver next year. Café Momentum plans to have ten locations and a national flagship restaurant and training center by 2035.
The Humanitarian of the Year Award is given to an individual or organization working in the realm of food who has given selflessly and worked tirelessly to better the lives of others and society at large.
Learn more at jamesbeard.org/awards.
Dallas native Chad Houser founded Café Momentum with a mission to transform young lives by equipping teens aged 15-19 with life skills, education, and employment opportunities at an award- winning restaurant and culinary training facility. As founder, CEO, and executive chef, Houser jokingly describes his ten-year-old nonprofit as “taking kids out of jail and teaching them to play with knives and fire.” All jokes aside, his hard work has paid off. After spending 17 years as a chef, Houser sold his restaurant shares to devote his full attention to his role at Café Momentum where he teaches life, social, and employment skills to Dallas’s most at-risk youth. In 2020, Houser launched Cafe Momentum’s expansion initiative, creating a national team dedicated to scaling the model for youth justice across the country. Café Momentum has expanded beyond Dallas to Atlanta and Pittsburgh, with a fourth location slated to open in Denver next year. Café Momentum plans to have ten locations and a national flagship restaurant and training center by 2035.
The Humanitarian of the Year Award is given to an individual or organization working in the realm of food who has given selflessly and worked tirelessly to better the lives of others and society at large.
Learn more at jamesbeard.org/awards.
