The James Beard Foundation Awards, aka the Oscars of the food world, have given the nod to 11 Houston talents by naming them semifinalists for the prestigious national awards.
Texas received a whopping 27 nominations with two of the top prize nominations handed out to Houston’s own The Original Ninfa’s on Navigation for Outstanding Restaurant and Chris Shepherd for Outstanding Chef. Shepherd won a James Beard Award in 2014 for Best Chef Southwest.
Other notable Houston nominations include: Jonathan “Jonny” Rhodes, Rising Star Chef; Tracy Vaught, Outstanding Restaurateur; and Best Chef Southwest nominees Kaiser Lashkari, Trong Nguyen and Ronnie Killen.
– Leah Steinberg, The 100 Companies