James Beard Media Award-Winning Chef Sophia Roe to Appear at SXSW 2023

While South by Southwest (SXSW) isn’t happening until 2023, the massive Austin conference-slash-festival announced the first slate of featured speakers set to appear at the festival next year. This includes New York City chef Sophia Roe, who won a James Beard Media Award this year.

Roe is the host of Vice’s cooking-centric television show Counter Space. The show was nominated twice for the Daytime Emmys, first her as the host in 2021 and the second for the program in 2022. She also won the Emerging Voice category in the James Beard Foundation’s media awards this year.

The chef had worked in various restaurants and catering companies, until she decided to switch to sharing her creative cooking on social media. She also runs the culinary studio Apartment Miso with her partner Chris Calderon.

Expect additional announcements for SXSW’s food-dedicated track later on. Other not-food-related speakers include track and field Olympian Allyson Felix, Indeed CEO Chris Hyans, and founder of Kind snacks Daniel Lubetzky. Other featured sessions include panels such as one about data privacy in light of the Roe v. Wade overruling.

This year’s SXSW looked very different, with a slew of COVID protocols amid a return to in-person festivities after being canceled in 2020 due to the beginning of the pandemic and a virtual year in 2021, resulting in a slight decrease in turnout.