James Beard Award for Best Chef: Texas

The 2025 James Beard Award Semifinalists Reflect the Evolving Definition of “Texan Food”

By Paula Forbes

View the Article on Texas Monthly Here

With 41 nominations on the list, this is one of the most fruitful years for our state, with Houston and San Antonio leading the way.

The James Beard Foundation has announced its 2025 Restaurant and Chef Award semifinalists, which include an impressive 41 from Texas. The state is guaranteed to have 20 semifinalists each year, for the Best Chef: Texas category; the rest come from national categories, including Outstanding Restaurant and Emerging Chef.

Of the big cities, Houston proper leads the way, with ten semifinalists, and it’s a delightful surprise to find San Antonio in second, with seven. Rounding out the group are Austin, with six selections; Dallas, with five; and El Paso, with three. The ’burbs have done well this year, as have smaller cities: Arlington, Brownsville, Irving, Kemah, Lewisville, Marfa, Seguin, Spring, and The Woodlands all make appearances on the list. 

Overall, the semifinalists represent both a wider geographic range and a broader diversity of chefs and cuisines than they have historically, which was the ultimate goal of the 2022 overhaul of the awards. Taken as a group, these chefs, restaurants, and hospitality professionals represent an evolving Texas dining scene, one that’s not afraid to upend culinary traditions—or ignore them altogether. As my colleague, taco editor José Ralat, told me, Texas is not just white tablecloths, Mexican, and barbecue.

Let’s start with our very own category, Best Chef: Texas. Here, the foundation’s judges seemed to favor chefs who tell Texan stories through their dishes, and their choices acknowledge the changing definition of “Texan food.”

Some of these innovating chefs include Fasicka and Patrick Hicks at Smoke’N Ash BBQ, in Arlington, who bring Ethiopian flavors to Texas barbecue, slathering spicy awaze sauce on brisket, ribs, and sausage and adding berbere spice to sweet potato pie. At Houston’s ChòpnBlọk, Ope Amosu celebrates Houston’s large West African population, cooking classics while occasionally veering off script. (Have his chances of winning an award improved now that he’s opened a brick-and-mortar? Last year, he was a semifinalist for Emerging Chef when he only had a food hall location.)