Chefs and restaurateurs wait for the James Beard Awards like movie actors wait for the Oscars. An award from the James Beard Foundation means gold for your resume and probably (if times were a little better right now) a salary bump. Today, the Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists in its annual competition; mind you that this is just the first round–the finalists will be announced on March 23, in Chicago, and the winners on May 4, at a gala banquet in New York.
Without further ado, here is a list of the TEXAS chefs who survived the first cuts. Good luck to all of them them going forward: TEXAS SEMIFINALISTS FOR OUTSTANDING RESTAURATEUR: Jim Goode and Levi Goode, Goode Company Restaurants, Houston. TEXAS SEMIFINALISTS FOR OUTSTANDING CHEF: Stephan Pyles, Stephan Pyles, Dallas. TEXAS SEMIFINALISTS FOR BEST NEW RESTAURANT: Feast, Houston; Tei An, Dallas. TEXAS SEMIFINALISTS FOR OUTSTANDING PASTRY CHEF: David Collier, The Mansion Restaurant at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas. TEXAS SEMIFINALISTS FOR BEST CHEF, SOUTHWEST REGION: Bryan Caswell, Reef, Houston; Tyson Cole, Uchi, Austin; Sharon A. Hage, York Street ; Paul Petersen, Café Cenizo, Marathon; Armando Pomales, Café Central, El Paso; John Tesar, The Mansion Restaurant at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas; Andrew Weissman, Le Rêve, San Antonio.To see all the semifinalists, nationwide, go here and click on the first link.
