While San Francisco doesn't have any new restaurants in contention at this year's "Oscars of Food," several local chefs and one beverage professional are in the running for awards this year.
Finalists were announced Wednesday for the 2025 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards, which are taking place June 16 in Chicago. Unlike the "long list" of semifinalists that is always announced and typically covers a broad swath of the national food scene, the finalists list is a shorter one.
Longtime San Francisco food industry stars, husband-and-wife chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, have previously taken home the James Beard Award for Best Chef: West in 2015. And they're doubly Michelin-starred Fillmore restaurants State Bird Provisions and The Progress continue to be popular draws — along with the newer Anchovy Bar around the corner.
This year they are finalists in the Oustanding Restaurateur category, up against other industry titans Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr in New York, and Sue and Jason Chin of Orlando's Good Salt Restaurant Group.
Also nominated this year for the category now known as Best Chef: California are Saison's executive chef Richard Lee, and Kosuke Tada of Mijoté. They are up against San Diego chef Tara Monsod, Los Angeles chef John Yao, and Daniel Castillo of Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano.
Lazy Bear's beverage director Jacob Brown has landed a nomination in the new category called Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service — which is now separate from a category called Oustanding Professional in Cocktail Service.
Sadly, San Francisco doesn't have any representative restaurants in the big national categories Outstanding Restaurant, Emerging Chef, or Best New Restaurant — even though the latter category now gets ten finalists named. Chinatown hot spot Four Kings was a semifinalist in the category.
There have now been several years of the James Beard Awards in which San Francisco — once a darling at the awards ceremony, winning something nearly every year — has been largely snubbed.
Hopefully, this year, that changes.
