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Another year, another snub from the James Beard Foundation Awards for Dallas. The 2015 finalists were just announced and not a single Dallas name made the highly coveted list.
The long list of semi-finalists released last month included Casa Rubia's Omar Flores, Matt McCallister of FT33, Lucia's David Uygur, and John Tesar at Knife for Best Chef Southwest, as well as Stephan Pyles in the highly competitive Outstanding Chef category, and his San Salvaje for Best New Restaurant. James Tidwell of the Four Seasons in Las Colinas was also included in the Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional category. Austin and Houston were both well represented in the Best Chef Southwest category, with two nominees each — including Franklin Barbecue pitmaster Aaron Franklin. (Whether or not pitmasters should be in the running for "Best Chef" is a whole other conversation.)
As Nancy Nichols points out over on SideDish, Dallas has a long history of being shut out of the Beard Awards: Former York Street chef-owner Sharon Hage was nominated for Best Chef Southwest a whopping five years in a row but never won. Tim Byres did pick up an award for his book Smoke: New Firewood Cooking last year, however.
