Andy Husbands (born February 12, 1969) is a chef, restaurateur, author and television personality. Currently, he is the chef and owner of The Smoke Shop BBQ restaurants, Boston magazine's "Best Barbecue Restaurant of 2018" and The Improper Bostonian "Best Barbecue" of 2017 and 2018. Smoke Shop BBQ has locations in various Boston metropolitan locations, including Cambridge's Kendall Square and Seaport's Fort Point and Somerville's Assembly Row. He has nearly 30 years in the restaurant industry. Biography Born and raised in Seattle, Husbands moved to Massachusetts with his father in 1984 at the age of fourteen. That was also the year he took an after-school job working at a neighborhood bakery. In 1992, after graduating from Johnson & Wales University, he became sous-chef at the nationally renowned East Coast Grill under mentor Chris Schlesinger. In 1995 he took a cross-country trip on his motorcycle, lived on a New Mexico farm during his journey, and then worked in several San Francisco-based restaurants. These experiences greatly influenced the seasonally-focused menu at his beloved Tremont 647, Husbands' first restaurant, which opened in 1996. Over time Tremont 647 became a South End staple: everyone in Boston knew this restaurant at the corner of Tremont and West Brookline streets and their "Pajama Brunch" and "Taco Tuesdays" to their seasonally-influenced dinner menu. Hailed as "Boston's Meat Maven" by The Boston Globe, Husbands first came into the national spotlight competing on Season 6 of FOX Television Network's fiery Hell's Kitchen, finishing in 8th place, and has since appeared on CBS This Morning, Food Network and Fox & Friends. He is the co-founder of the internationally recognized BBQ team IQUE BBQ, which became the first New England team to win the World Champions of BBQ title in 2009 at the Jack Daniels World Championship in Tennessee. He has co-authored five coveted cookbooks, including Wicked Good Burgers, Wicked Good BBQ, Grill to Perfection, The Fearless Chef, and his latest, Pitmaster: Recipes, Techniques & Barbecue Wisdom, which was recently awarded "Book of the Year" by National Barbeque News. Charity Husbands is concerned about childhood hunger and donates his time and money to Share Our Strength, the national hunger relief organization. For 20 years he has also hosted the organization's direct-service annual program, Operation Frontline (now called Cooking Matters), which is a dinner at Tremont 647. He is honorary chair of Share Our Strength's Boston Taste of the Nation annual fundraiser and