Submitted photo.
Ocean Springs-raised chef earns coveted industry honor for his cooking at Josephine’s, the Houston restaurant named after his great-grandmother
Mississippi native Lucas McKinney, who grew up on the Gulf Coast and started cooking in Oxford while attending Ole Miss, has been named one of Food & Wine’s 2026 Best New Chefs. The honor recognizes his work at Josephine’s, a Houston restaurant shaped by generations of Gulf Coast tradition – and by his formative years in the kitchens of some of Mississippi’s most acclaimed chefs.
Food & Wine has named America’s Best New Chefs annually since 1988. The very first class included chefs who would go on to transform the restaurant world: Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Rick Bayless and Hubert Keller. The accolade has helped to propel the careers of many others since, including Nobu Matsuhisa, Tom Colicchio, David Chang, Anita Lo, David Bouley, Nancy Silverton, Grant Achatz, Kwame Onwuachi and more.
“I don’t know how to put it into words,” McKinney said. “Josephine’s would be nothing without our team, the farmers and fishermen we’ve built relationships with and our guests who support us. To be able to do something this big with Gulf Coast cooking – the fish we grew up eating, the crabs we grew up cooking, the oysters we shucked at home – means the world.”
Born in Biloxi and raised in Ocean Springs, McKinney spent much of his childhood fishing the Back Bay of Biloxi and waters around Deer Island. He learned to fillet fish and shuck oysters in grade school. His first kitchen job was at The Second Line on the Oxford Square under 2009 Food & Wine Best New Chef Kelly English. He also worked with James Beard Award winners John Currence at City Grocery and Vishwesh Bhatt at Snackbar in Oxford, along with Nick Reppond at GRIT Restaurant in Taylor.
McKinney moved to Houston in 2018 to work with James Beard Award winner and 2013 Food & Wine Best New Chef Chris Shepherd at Underbelly Hospitality. Working his way up from line cook to sous chef, he cooked at restaurants including Georgia James, Hay Merchant and One Fifth. He was 29 when he opened Josephine’s in the summer of 2023.
Josephine’s was built on the backs of generations of his family from Biloxi who worked in the seafood industry, including Croatian immigrants on his mother’s side. The last of his relatives to work the water was his great-great-grandfather Joseph “Papa Joe” Nicovich, a shrimper and oyster tonger who made and mended cast nets. The restaurant is named for Nicovich’s daughter Althea Josephine, McKinney’s great-grandmother.
Those ties to the Gulf are central to McKinney’s cooking. He works directly with the fishermen, farmers and purveyors who shape the menu at Josephine’s: Holy Ground oysters from his hometown of Ocean Springs; Mermaid Tears from Lone Star Oyster Company in Galveston’s West Bay; blue crab from Houston fisherman Captain Fred McBride; Texas redfish from Turtle Creek Aquaculture and shrimp from Bowers Shrimp Farm, both in Palacios; okra and Texas produce from Sweetwater Farms in Houston and Indie Harvesters in Hempstead.
Alabama shrimp comes from Jubilee Seafood in Bayou La Batre near Mobile. Hand-picked Louisiana crab arrives via JV Foods in New Orleans. Gulf fish from Texas to Florida is supplied by Fortune Fish & Gourmet. Fish collars come from Blue Horizon Seafood and Airline Seafood in Houston. Little goes unused, from prized species to bycatch.
On the plate at Josephine’s, that becomes Halfshell Grilled Redfish from Palacios with North African chermoula; Jerk Fish Collars with Jamaican jerk seasoning and chili butter; BBQ Blue Crabs with Creole mustard and tomato BBQ sauce; and Smoked Redfish Dip with lemon remoulade and deep-fried ranch saltines.
Those signature dishes share the menu with familiar Gulf Coast staples such as crawfish, hush puppies, biscuits, red beans and rice, gumbo, fried shrimp and catfish platters, po’ boys and muffulettas. Sentimental favorites include Barq’s Peanut Pie made with Barq’s Root Beer, which was created in Biloxi in 1898, and Chicken on a Stick, an Ole Miss tradition from the 4 Corners Chevron convenience store in Oxford.
“Cook what you know,” McKinney said. “It comes from somewhere inside of you, and I fought that early in my career. It was one of the biggest obstacles I faced in getting food from an idea onto a plate.
“A lot of what I do now, I do thinking about my ancestors. They were canning oysters and peeling shrimp so their families could survive. That’s what built me, and I’m just representing it.”
About the Author
