Wednesday morning the James Beard Foundation announced Chefs, beverage programs, restaurants and bars nominated for their 2025 culinary awards, greatly reducing the number of names in the Los Angeles area previously in the race.
In January the James Beard Foundation Recognized almost 20 Restaurants of the, chefs and others as semifinalists. As of this morning, only five from Los Angeles County and Orange will proceed as nominated.
Every year, the James Beard Foundation awards recognize people, companies and programs in the gastronomic and hospital industry; Praise are widely considered as some of the most prestigious in the country's culinary world. This year's winners will be announced in a ceremony held on June 16 in Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The chefs of the area have been in the streak in the Best Chef category: California. Last year Kuya Lord Chef-Owner Lord Maynard Llera He won the honorAnd in 2023, Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai was Granted the title. This year's nominees include two chefs named in the The Times 2024 101 Guide of the best restaurants: Jon Yao and Daniel Castillo.
Chef Jon Yao prepares an Anguilla course in Kato in 2022.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Yao serves a famous tasting menu informed for his Taiwanese heritage. His arts district restaurant, Kato, not only landed in the number 1 place in the list of the best Times restaurants two years in a row, but also obtained a Michelin star and placement in the 50 best restaurants in the world.
Yao was semifinalist or nominated in the Rising Star Chef of the Year category in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Castillo Helms Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano, where you can find regularly some of the most tender breasts, creative and special intercultural sausages of gender flexion. This is the first nomination of James Beard (or semifinalist assent) for Castillo and Heritage.
Castillo said he is celebrating victory as a team effort, and expects the nomination to throw more light on Orange County and his culinary community, as well as barbecue as a whole.
A barbecue tray of the Pitmaster and co -owner Daniel Castillo in Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“The light has been demonstrated in the amount of work dedicated to operating a barbecue restaurant,” Castillo said. “It is a marathon and it is a lot of hard work, it is a great dedication. It is not different from having a chef that works in a restaurant of fine ends: the consistency is important. Above all, you are working with living fire instead of a switch in a kitchen that you can appear and go down; you are working with something that is wild and that takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of time to dominate something like that.”
In San Diego, Tara Monsod It is also a nominated. Monsod made waves with a modern Filipina cuisine in Animae, and also leads the kitchen at the Sibiling Le Coq restaurant, a French grill in the jolla. Two San Francisco chefs are the other finalists of the best chef of the state: Richard Lee de Saison and Kosuke Tada de Míjoté.
Command bread In Long Beach Return as nominated in the outstanding bakery category; The Artisanal Bakery of the owners Arturo Enciso and Ana Belén Salatino began as a homemade operation But it became a full bakery centered on the grains of the relic and the local seasonal supply.
Arturo brushes gaped the butter in the dead bread freshly baked in Long Beach taste.
(Shelby Moore / for the times)
Anaheim's Strong water It was also nominated in its category last year. He Fit Tiki Destiny Of the duo of husband and wife Robert Adamson and Ying Chang is once again a contender in the category of exceptional wines or other drinks, and one of the The best Tiki bars in southern California.
Karité Tobin – Director of Redbird Bars – It is a contender for an excellent professional in the cocktail service together with beverage colleagues in Honolulu, New York, Cincinnati and Denver.
This is Shea's first beard assent, as well as Redbird's. In the restaurant of the center focuses on thematic menus with high classics, as well as an ABV program.
Shea, now in her 30 -year -old, clearly remembers having heard a podcast that announced that the Foundation was adding a category for bar programs in 2012, finally recognizing cocktails after a long history celebrating the wine.
“In my head I thought, 'God, this is the justification I need to continue BARMAN,'” he said. “My parents always accepted it, but they always said:” Are you thinking of getting a job that is not going to be campaigned now? “In 2012 I only remember having heard that podcast and being like: it would be absolutely incredible to have that for my career, or simply in general, something to work.”
The Source of the Young Source of Tobin Shea de Redbird.
(Antonio Díaz)
Shea was a member of the Redbird opening team and has been with the unconditional restaurant for more than a decade. Consider that the nomination is in recognition of all the personnel of your bar, not simply to yourself.
Shea's 50th birthday is the week prior to the awards ceremony of the James Beard 2025 Foundation, so he and his family could end up celebrating both events in Chicago.
“It's going to be a great week,” he said.
The majority of the semifinalists of Los Angeles did not proceed to the nominations round.
In the Best Chef category: California, almost half of the semifinalists emerged from Los Angeles or Orange County. In addition to Yao, Castillo and Monsod, the semifinalists of the Foundation included Kwang Uh from Baroo, Alex and Elvia García de Evil Cooks, Evan Algorri de Etra, Charles Namba de Camélia, Danielle Duran-Zecca Amiga Amiga, Melissa López de Barra Santos and Roberto Alcocer de Valle de Valle in Oceanside.
In the national categories, Gilberto Cetina de Holbox was appointed semifinalist in the category of Outstanding Chef, while Pasjoli de Santa Monica was a semifinalist for an outstanding restaurant. Damian's Jesus “Chuy” Cervantes was the only semifinalist in southern California for this year's emerging chef award, and Bridgetown Roti was indicated as the semifinalist in the best group of new restaurants. République was a semifinalist of an outstanding hospitality, while Thunderbolt was semifinalist in an excellent bar and Nicole Rucker was a semifinalist for the outstanding bakery or baker.
