Brownsville, Lockhart, Marfa, Mission, and Seguin have all secured representation on the coveted list, often known as the Oscars of the restaurant industry.
Taco editor José R. Ralat won a second James Beard Media Award, and executive editor Patricia Sharpe was inducted into the Wine & Food Week Hall of Fame.
The highlight of the event was Benchawan Jabthong Painter, of Houston Thai restaurant Street to Kitchen, winning Best Chef: Texas, but no other Texas finalists made it to the podium.
The nominations mark Texas Monthly’s six and seventh nods from the organization.
After a diversity scandal in 2020, the Oscars of the restaurant industry upgraded its standards. A bar in Houston, a taqueria in Austin, and Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat are among the first winners under the new system.
And yet, after the state’s even more stellar showing in the semifinals, the announcement feels disappointing.
Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas join the ranks of Chris Shepherd, Tyson Cole, David Bull and seventeen other Texas chefs previously honored with the same recognition.
The James Beard Foundation named the restaurant in the tiny town Buffalo Gap one of "America's Classics," a designation awarded to places that have "timeless appeal."
Twenty chefs and restaurants make the James Beard semifinals.
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
