Dallas area chefs and restaurants have a long history of nominations for various James Beard Awards. However, for decades we have been shunned when it comes to winning. Remember 2009 when Sharon Hage was shut out for the fifth time as Best Chef: Southwest? Kent Rathbun? Stephan Pyles? Bruno Davaillon? Teiichi Sakura? They’ve all been invited to the dance, but never got to waltz. Our biggest victory in forever came when Tim Byres picked up an award last year for his marvelous cookbook Smoke: New Firewood Cooking.
The finalists for 2015 James Beard Foundation Awards are about to be live tweeted, a method that is great for the traffic to their site, but a beat down for those of us attempting to report the news. If you don’t have twitter, you can just refresh this post every so often for the results as they come. If you do, watch us @DSideDish.
Enough. On to the drama.
Here are the Dallas semi-finalists:
Stephan Pyles for Outstanding Chef
San Salvaje Best New Restaurant
Omar Flores (Casa Rubia) Outstanding Chef: Southwest
Matt McCallister (FT33) Outstanding Chef: Southwest
David Uygur (Lucia) Outstanding Chef: Southwest
John Tesar (Knife)Outstanding Chef: Southwest
James Tidwell (Four Seasons in Las Colinas) Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional list. First loss. Finalists: Sam Calagione, Ron Cooper, Ted Lemon, Harlen Wheatle
The winners will be announced Monday, May 4, 2015 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Here is a list of the finalists who might win something. Here are the winners of Best Chef: Southwest from Texas and the Southwest.
Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue, Austin
Bryce Gilmore, Barley Swine, Austin
Hugo Ortega, Hugo’s (also Caracol, Backstreet), Houston
Justin Yu, Oxheart, Houston.
The other two competitors for the Southwest award are Kevin Binkley (Binkley’s Cave Creek, Arizona) and Martín Rios (Restaurant Martín, Santa Fe, New Mexico).
