This morning, some of the country's top chefs, restaurants and beverage professionals earned industry-wide recognition with the announcement of the 2025 James Beard Award semifinalists. The annual awards ceremony, widely considered one of the most prestigious honors In the culinary field, it celebrates a variety of hospitality functions and businesses. This year, nearly 20 semifinalists in Los Angeles and Orange County are in the running.
Wednesday morning's announcement marks the first in a series leading up to the final awards ceremony, which will take place June 16 in Chicago. Nominees, chosen from this list of semi-finalists, will be announced in April.
Today, Los Angeles-area chefs have earned recognition in nearly every category, and by 2025, about a third of the state's top chef contenders will be cooking in Los Angeles. Last year, Kuya Lord chef and owner Lord Maynard Llera was named best chef in California; In 2023, Anajak Thai's Justin Pichetrungsi was received the title.
Evan Algorri in the Etra kitchen in 2023.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Evan Algorri from Melrose Hill Italian restaurant Etra received its first Beard Foundation honor this morning in the category of Best Chef: California. For Algorri, the James Beard Foundation and its culinary awards directly influenced his career: the young chef, still in culinary school, dressed in his best and attended the 2010 awards ceremony; Upon seeing Marea win the award for best new restaurant, he decided that this was his future. After years in Marea's kitchen, he flew to Los Angeles to open Etrahis own Italian restaurant, of which he is executive chef and partner.
“It's crazy,” Algorri said of the news. “It's a little overwhelming. And it is very appreciated at a time when things are very difficult for restaurants. It's a bit positive, overall it's a warm feeling in every way.”
Other new semi-finalists in the category include Baroo's Kwang Uhalthough an earlier version of Baroo was a semi-finalist for best new restaurant of 2016; kato's jon yaowho was a semi-finalist or nominee for rising star chef of the year in 2018, 2019 and 2020; and camellia Carlos Nambawhose sake bar Echo Park Ototo took home the prize for its outstanding wine and other beverage program in 2023.
Santos' Bar Melissa Lopez is also new to the category this year, although Portuguese bar and restaurant Cypress Park obtained a semi-finalist approval for best new restaurant of last year. Friend Love's Danielle Duran-Zecca She was, together with her husband and co-chef Alessandro Zecca, a semi-finalist in the emerging chef category last year, but in 2025 only Duran-Zecca is a semi-finalist.
The husband and wife chef-owners of Evil Cooks Alex and Elvia García They are contenders for best chef: California; They were semi-finalists in the category last year, and He recently opened his physical taqueria. in El Sereno.
Evil Cooks owners and husband and wife team Alex “Pobre Diablo” García, left, and Elvia “La Bruja” García in the kitchen of their new traditional restaurant.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
In Orange County, Daniel Castillo from Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano, a frequent spot Awarded by the LA Times 101 List and popular destination for genre-bending barbecue, it's also a contender for best chef: California. Tara Monsod San Diego's Animae is a returning semifinalist in the category this year; she was He was also nominated last year.. Further north, the Oceanside chef Roberto Alcocer valley craft intricate Mexican tasting menus that earned him his first semi-finalist nod.
Only one name from the Los Angeles area is a featured chef semifinalist this year: Gilberto Cetina of Holbox's Historic South-Central Holbox, a Yucatecan beacon of fresh seafood at the Mercado la Paloma food hall and LA Times Restaurant of the Year in 2023.
Across town, Dave Beran's praised French restaurant pasjolí is the only Southern California semifinalist in the featured restaurant category.
Jesús “Chuy” Cervantes photographed in 2022 in Damián.
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
The emerging chef division highlights emerging talent and Jesus “Chuy” Cervantes is the only semifinalist from Southern California. Cervantes is the chef de cuisine of Enrique Olvera's modern Mexican restaurant Damián and its adjacent Ditroit Taqueria in the Arts District.
Cervantes said he is honored and surprised by the news, as well as thanking his restaurant teams for their support over the years. For him and his colleagues, it is a time to celebrate, but also to reflect.
“We work very hard on these kinds of things,” Cervantes said. “Often for us, on the best days, it's hard work. On the worst days, it becomes survival. This gives you a little pause to look back and realize that you should be proud of the things you are working on.”
Also in recognition of new and rising talent, one Los Angeles restaurant received a nomination in the best new restaurant category: East Hollywood's. Bridgetown Rotithe long-awaited Caribbean restaurant from one of the best pop-ups in the city. Chef and co-owner Rashida Holmes was a semi-finalist in the emerging chef category of 2024.
“I hope that by this time next year more Caribbean restaurants will appear in Los Angeles, because I think the market is ripe and people want to have it,” Holmes he told The Times last summer. “We need more of us. “Los Angeles is too big for there not to be more of us here, really making waves.”
Bread Tastein Long Beach, is once again a semifinalist for featured bakery. The artisanal bakery that focuses on traditional grains and local sourcing. was nominated for the award last year but lost to Zu Bakery in Portland, Maine.
Nicole Rucker, semi-finalist in 2024 ohoutstanding pcunning dohef o baker categoryis once again recognized in the category. At her Culver City coffee shop and Grand Central Market stand, Fat & Flour, she specializes in cakes, cookies and brownies, and many sweets highlight seasonal fruits. Rucker was also previously nominated at the foundation's media awards for her 2019 cookbook. “Mottled.”
Nicole Rucker is in the dining room of her Fat & Flour location in Culver City.
(Bill Addison/Los Angeles Times)
RepublicThe celebrated Mid-City cafe, bakery and French restaurant from chefs and owners Walter and Margarita Manzke, receives recognition in the exceptional hospitality category. In 2023, Margarita Manzke won the outstanding pastry chef or baker category after being named a semi-finalist or nominee every year since 2015.
No Los Angeles bar or restaurant is a semifinalist in the featured wine or other beverage program category, although Anaheim tiki bar Strong Water is. Husband and wife team Robert Adamson and Ying Chang's ambitious ode to the cocktail genre was nominated in the same category last yearbut lost to Lula Drake Wine Parlor in Columbia, South Carolina.
But historic Filipinotown Ray — previously noted as “One to Watch” by the list of the 50 best bars in the world, it obtained a semi-finalist recognition for its exceptional bar. No Los Angeles-area bar is a semifinalist in the best new bar category, although San Diego's Roma Norte, a Mexico City-inspired cocktail lounge, is.
However, no Southern California staff is a semifinalist for the Outstanding Beverage Service Professional category. Tobin Shea — bar manager at downtown restaurant stalwart Redbird — is a candidate for top cocktail service professional.
However, no member of the Southern California industry was chosen in the outstanding restaurateur category. Margaret and Greg Ryan of Companion Hospitality of the Santa Ynez Valley are semifinalists for their Central Coast operations at Bell's, Bar Le Côte, Priedite Barbecue and more: popular dining destinations for Angelenos.
Nominees for the 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced on April 2 and winners will be shared at the awards ceremony on June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. You can find the full list of 2025 semi-finalists here.
