James Beard Awards 2016 Restaurant & Chef Semifinalists for Nashville

Ben Barker of the former Magnolia Grill in Durham, and Andrea Reusing of Lantern in Chapel Hill and Durham Hotel in Durham in addition to Christensen of Poole’s Diner in Raleigh won Best Chef Southeast in 2000, 2011 and 2014 respectively. Sawicki was also named a semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry chef, her second such honor.

Five local chefs are nominated in the Best Chef: South category: Justin Devillier, La Petite Grocery; Michael Gulotta, MoPho; Slade Rushing, Brennan’s; Michael Stoltzfus, Coquette; Isaac Toups, Toups’ Meatery.

Often referred to as the “long list”, the list of James Beard Award semifinalists comes together after the foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards Committee (a group composed of critics, writers, and editors) makes selections from a list of names gathered during an online open call.

Although Phoenix’s Fry Bread House was honored by the foundation as one of “America’s Classics” in 2012, the last Arizona chef to win a James Beard Award was Nobuo Fukuda, who was honored in 2007 for his work at Sea Saw.

Sam Fox is once again listed in the “Outstanding Restaurateur” category.

Finalists for the 2016 awards, considered the Oscars of the food world, will be announced March 15 and the winners on May 2.

Chris Bianco’s restaurant, Pizzeria Bianco, has been nominated for “Outstanding Restaurant” for the third year running. The foundation is named after James Beard, a television food personality and cookbook author who was an early champion of regional American cuisine.

The full list of semifinalists can be found here.

Jarrett Steiber of Eat Me Speak Me is a 2016 James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist for Rising Star Chef.