Flores and McCallister Nominated for Food & Wine's Best New Chef Southwest

Each year, epicurean porn mag Food & Wine selects ten up-and-coming chefs from around the country to herald in their annual Best New Chefs issue. Nominees for 2013 have just been announced, and two Dallas darlings made the cut for the Southwest region: Matt McCallister of FT33 and Omar Flores of Driftwood (recipients of the 2012 Eater Chef of the Year and Restaurant of the Year awards, respectively).

F&W notes McCallister is "attracting crowds to his first solo venture with his modern locavore dishes", while proclaiming that Flores has "given Dallas its best seafood restaurant ever" (although Spoon's John Tesar might have something to say about that). The pair certainly have their work cut out for them, going up against fellow trailblazers like Chris Shepherd of Houston's Underbelly and Justin Yu of Oxheart, also in Houston.

Voting is now open via the F&W site; McCallister looks to have an early lead, but ballots are open until March 18.

· The People's Best New Chef [Food & Wine]
· More Omar Flores coverage on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]
· More Matt McCallister coverage on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]