Here Are Houston’s 2025 James Beard Award Finalists

Houston lands four nods this year for the vaunted ceremony, with accolades to Ema, March, Belly of the Beast, and Tatemó

The James Beard Awards, often referred to as “the Oscars of food,” are among the most prestigious awards in the food and hospitality industry. Each year, the James Beard Foundation recognizes restaurants, bars, and hospitality professionals in categories such as Outstanding Restaurant, Best Chef, and Best New Chef. Today, April 2, the 2025 James Beard Awards finalist list dropped.

Houston chefs and restaurants were strongly represented in this year’s James Beard Award semifinalists, with 13 of them up for medals in seven different categories. Six chefs in the Houston area were in the running for Best Chef: Texas, which is a new record for the city. Houston also received notable nods in the Outstanding Restaurateur, Emerging Chef, Best New Restaurant, Outstanding Bakery, Outstanding Wine, and Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service categories, the last two of which are new for the Beards.

Here are the 2025 nominees this year for Houston:

• Ema — Best New Restaurant
• March — Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
• Thomas Bille at Belly of the Beast — Best Chef: Texas
• Emmanuel Chavez at Tatemó — Best Chef: Texas

Ema serves creative conchas and breakfast items prepared through a refined Mexican American lens. It offers the ease of casual counter-ordering in a homey cafe that has become a boon to its neighborhood.

March is a tasting menu-only restaurant that opened in 2021. The wine list is largely from the Mediterranean under the guidance of master sommelier June Rodil.

In Spring, Belly of the Beast is a drive for Houstonians but worth it for the plates of Mexican fare like the ceviche mixto tostada with octopus, shrimp, uni, and a catch of the day fish that chef Bille dreams up.

Tatemó chef Emmanuel Chavez should be used to praise by now, and his restaurant continually earns its place on Best Of lists for its incredible tasting menu.

The first James Beard Awards ceremony was held in 1991, with chefs like Rick Bayless, Nancy Silverton, and Wolfgang Puck walking away as winners. In recent years, the awards have been under increased scrutiny after canceling its programming in 2020 and 2021 due to misbehavior and abuse allegations against nominated chefs, and a lack of nominated and winning Black chefs among the categories. In response, the James Beard Foundation conducted an internal audit to make its voting processes more inclusive and equitable before returning in 2022. In recent years, the awards have shifted the Best Chef category to a regional model to better recognize the diversity and depth of talent.

The final ceremony naming the Beard winners for 2025 will be held on Monday, June 16, in Chicago. Houston’s last win came in 2023, when chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter (Chef G) of Second Ward Thai restaurant Street to Kitchen was named Best Chef: Texas.

Get the full list of James Beard Award Finalists from across the country on Eater.

Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2025. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.