For the fifth year, chef Steve McHugh of Cured at the Pearl has been named a James Beard Foundation finalist.
In past years, Texas has been a part of the Best Chef: Southwest category, which also covered Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Oklahoma. This time, he was nominated in the newly created Best Chef: Texas category.
Other finalists in the category include Kevin Fink (Emmer & Rye in Austin, Michael Fojtasek (Olamaie in Austin), Anita Jaisinghani (Pondicheri in Houston) and Trong Nguyen (Crawfish & Noodles in Houston).
James Beard Foundation Awards, considered one of the foodservice industry’s most coveted honors, are given in categories including chefs and restaurants, books, journalism and broadcast media.
While two other San Antonio chefs were named 2020 JBF Best Chef: Texas semi-finalists — Alex Paredes of Carnitas Lonja and Esaul Ramos of 2M Smokehouse — only McHugh will move forward with the hope of being awarded the ultimate title when winners are announced in the fall.
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This article appears in Apr 22 – May 5, 2020.
