San Antonio got here up a bit quick on this yr’s James Beard Awards. Christopher Cullum, chef-owner of Cullum’s Attaboy, didn’t win Greatest Chef: Texas on the ceremony held on Monday, June 10.
As a substitute, the prize went to Ana Liz Pulido of Ana Liz Taqueria in Mission, Texas. Positioned within the Rio Grande Valley, Pulido has earned huge popularity of her tacos and different dishes made with nixtamalized corn, her exactly made salsas, and punctiliously ready meats and different fillings. In a 2022 evaluate, Texas Month-to-month taco editor José Ralat hailed the restaurant as “well worth the pilgrimage for taco lovers.”
Thought of the Oscars of the meals world, the James Beard awards acknowledge cooks and different culinary professionals in a variety of classes starting from Excellent Chef to Greatest New Restaurant. Winners are chosen by the inspiration’s Awards Committee that’s made up of media members, former winners, and others. See the complete checklist of winners right here.
The finalist place continues to be an achievement for chef Christopher Cullum, who serves a French-influenced breakfast and lunch menu. The restaurant’s quick informal format belies the effective eating features of its meals, which embrace a burger topped with demi-glace, basic escargot, and rolled omelets topped with freshly shaved truffles. Cullum, who famously started his profession by washing dishes at his father’s River Stroll jazz membership, earned a nomination for Chef of the Yr within the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.
General, it was a troublesome night time for Texas cooks and eating places, as Pulido was the state’s solely winner. Not one of the nominees within the nationwide classes took dwelling prizes. They have been:
Greatest New Restaurant: Barbs-B-Q, LockhartOutstanding Bar: Las Ramblas (Brownsville)Excellent Hospitality: Gemma (Dallas)Excellent Restaurant: Mixtli (San Antonio)Excellent Restaurant: Comfort West (Marfa)Excellent Chef: David Uygur, Lucia (Dallas)
Along with Chavez and Pulido, three different cooks have been nominated for Greatest Chef: Texas:
Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel, Birdie’sEmmanuel Chavez, Tatemó (Houston)Misti Norris, Petra & the Beast (Dallas)
Here is a better have a look at the opposite nominated Texas cooks:
At Birdie’s in Austin, chef Malechek-Ezekiel serves a constantly-changing menu based mostly round seasonal proteins and produce. The restaurant blends a quick informal enterprise mannequin with a effective eating degree of consideration to element and an in depth wine checklist. It has drawn numerous nationwide consideration, together with being named a Greatest New Restaurant by each Esquire and Bon Appétit in addition to 2023 Restaurant of the Yr by Meals & Wine and one in all Austin’s 25 finest eating places by the New York Occasions. She received Chef of the Yr within the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.
At Tatemó in Houston, chef Emmanuel Chavez nonetheless has the standing of being a two-times Beard Award finalist, having been nominated within the Rising Chef class in 2023. He’s earned appreciable nationwide consideration for his restaurant, which serves a tasting menu constructed round dishes that use nixtamalized heirloom corn. In 2022, Esquire named it one in all America’s Greatest New Eating places, and final yr Meals & Wine chosen Chavez as one in all its Greatest New Cooks — the primary time a Houston chef had earned that recognition since 2014. Tatemó received Restaurant of the Yr within the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.
At Petra & the Beast in Dallas, chef Norris serves a menu constructed round locally-sourced substances, together with meats which might be butchered in-house, an in depth charcuterie program, and many fermented gadgets. It has earned widespread nationwide recognition, together with Greatest New Restaurant recognition from each Meals & Wine and Texas Month-to-month and a Meals & Wine Greatest New Chef award in 2019. Norris received Chef of the Yr within the 2019 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, and Petra & the Beast received Restaurant of the Yr within the 2024 Tastemaker Awards.
The awards have been offered on the Lyric Opera in Chicago. The muse additionally offered media awards on Saturday, June 8.
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Full disclosure:CultureMap Houston editor Eric Sandler is a voter within the James Beard Awards. Brandon Watson, Teresa Gubbins, and Amber Heckler contributed to this story.
