About Andy Husbands

Andy Husbands is the award-winning chef/owner of two of Boston’s hottest restaurants, Tremont 647 and Sister Sorel. He started his culinary career with an after-school baking job when he was 14, and hasn’t looked back.

Born and raised in Seattle, Husbands boasts a resume that includes work as a sous chef and, later, executive chef at the nationally renowned East Coast Grill in Cambridge, under James Beard winner Chris Schlesinger. He learned about BBQ at what was then the restaurant’s take-out shop, Jake and Earl’s Dixie Barbecue.

He opened the 100-seat Tremont 647, in the heart of Boston’s South End, with high school friend (and now barbeque team partner) Chris Hart, in 1996. The restaurant serves up boldly flavored American cuisine, with inventive global influences. Husbands’ commitment to locally-grown ingredients is reflected in the restaurant’s eight-season cycle; the menu is changed bi-monthly to take advantage of market freshness.

Four years after opening his first restaurant, Husbands was ready to grow his business, and opened Sister Sorel next door. The 30-seat café features more casual dining, plus a 10-seat private dining room, all served from the Tremont 647 kitchen.

Husbands began barbecuing competitively about 10 years ago, and is a member of the Kansas City Barbecue Society and New England Barbecue Society. With his team, iQUE BBQ (sponsored by Harpoon Brewery), Husbands travels the country to compete in some of the country’s most selective competitions and has racked up an impressive list of awards and recognition.*

Husbands has made several TV appearances. CBS featured him several times in a segment on “The Early Show” called “Chef on a Shoestring,” in which he demonstrated how to cook a three-course dinner for four people for less than $20. In the Boston area, he has appeared on “TV Diner,” “Phantom Gourmet,” and “WB in the Morning.” He also appeared on local TV stations across the country to promote his first book, “The Fearless Chef.”

Outside the kitchen, Husbands has demonstrated a strong commitment to the community that supports him. He is on the advisory board of Boston Operation Frontline, a program that fights hunger by using chefs to teach cooking and nutrition to low-income families. He co-chairs the Boston Taste of the Nation, an annual fundraising event for Share Our Strength, one of the country’s leading hunger relief organizations. In 2007 Tremont 647 hosted the organization’s annual Operation Frontline charity dinner for the 10th consecutive year. To date, Husbands has raised $100,000 in cash donations through his two restaurants, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the charity.

Husbands’ honors include the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence in 1999, 2000 and 2001; the 1999 grand prize in the National Poultry Council’s Grab Bag Contest and Best of Boston awards from Boston magazine in 1998 and 2001. In 2000 and 2002, he was named one of Boston nightlife’s most influential people by Stuff at Night magazine. And in the spring of 2005, he was one of only 5 “Celebrated Chefs” chosen by the National Pork Board. He participated in the Board’s national media tour for its “Pork, the Other White Meat” campaign.

*iQue’s Awards:

New England BBQ Society Team of the Year
2002, 2003, 2005

2007 American Royal, 500 teams
1st Place Beef Brisket

Harpoon Championship of New England
2004, 2005 Grand Champions
2002, 2006 Reserve Grand Champions

Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational
Invited 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
Winners of SIX Jack Jugs

Harpoon Championship of New England
1st Place Chicken 2007
1st Place Ribs 2005
1st Place Pork 2005
1st Place Brisket 2006

More than 20 Kansas City Barbecue Society GRAND Championships