James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Semifinalists

Today the James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for its 2025 Restaurant and Chef Awards. This list includes categories both national awards such as Best New Restaurant, Outstanding Baker, Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Pastry Chef, Outstanding Restaurateur, and Rising Star Chef of the Year, plus regional categories for chefs. 2025 marks a milestone for the Foundation: the 35th anniversary of the James Beard Awards.

A fair number of the chefs and restaurateurs landing on this esteemed list have written cookbooks, which is not surprising – these are among the best chefs in the country, and because of the all the categories there are many names on the list. The following chefs and/or restaurateurs have all written cookbooks:

• State Bird Provisions: A Cookbook by Stuart Brioza, Nicole Krasinski and JJ Goode
• The Balthazar Cookbook by Keith McNally, Lee Hanson, and Riad Nasr
• Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans by Mason Hereford and JJ Goode
• Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South by William Dissen
• Gabriel Kreuther: The Spirit of Alsace, A Cookbook by Gabriel Kreuther and Michael Ruhlman
• Boka The Cookbook by Lee Wolen and Rob Katz and Taylor Crowley and Huge Galdones and Kevin Boehm
• Benu by Corey Lee
• The Four Horsemen: Food and Wine for Good Times from the Brooklyn Restaurant by Nick Curtola
• Dappled: Baking Recipes for Fruit Lovers by Nicole Rucker
• Coming soon: Fat + Flour: The Art of a Simple Bake by Nicole Rucker
• Baking at République: Masterful Techniques and Recipes for Bakers by Margarita Manzke and Betty Hallock
• The Homebrewer’s Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to Making Your Own Beer from Scratch by Marika Josephson and Aaron Kleidon and Ryan Tockstein
• My Cambodia – A Khmer Cookbook by Nite Yun
• Cooks’ House: The Art and Soul of Local, Sustainable Cuisine by Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson
• Koji Alchemy: Rediscovering the Magic of Mold-Based Fermentation by Jeremy Umansky and Rich Shih
• The Joy of Pizza: Everything You Need to Know by Dan Richer
• My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes by Hooni Kim and Aki Kamozawa
• My America: Recipes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein
• Cook Real Hawai’i by Sheldon Simeon and Garrett Snyder
• Our South: Black Food Through My Lens by Ashleigh Shanti

Nominees for the awards will be announced on Wednesday, April 2, and winners will be announced at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on Monday, June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.