We’ve reached the ultimate class within the 2025 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards. These are the nominees for Chef of the 12 months.
This yr’s nominees are an achieved group. They maintain Michelin stars and acquired Bib Gourmand designations. They’re James Beard Award semifinalists, finalists, and winners. They’ve competed on Prime Chef and been featured in nationwide publications similar to Meals & Wine and The New York Instances.
In fact all of them serve constantly well-prepared dishes that preserve diners coming again repeatedly. They’re additionally leaders and mentors who’re guiding the subsequent technology of cooks who will make their very own mark on the eating scene. Many are concerned in quite a few native nonprofits, together with I’ll Have What She’s Having and the Southern Smoke Basis.
Who will win? Discover out tonight, April 3, on the Tastemaker Awards social gathering at Silver Avenue Studios. We’ll dine on bites from this yr’s nominated eating places and sip cocktails from our sponsors earlier than revealing the winners in our brief and candy ceremony.
A really restricted variety of Basic Admission tickets stay. Purchase yours earlier than they promote out.
Listed below are the nominees for Chef of the 12 months:
Aaron Davis, Viola & Agnes
For years, Houston meals obsessives have been making their approach to Kemah to pattern Davis’ tackle soul meals, however the chef’s repute has lastly grown past the Bayou Metropolis. The New York Instances included the restaurant on its checklist of “50 Favourite Locations in America Proper Now,” hailing for his “rustic Southern cooking.” Diners at Viola & Agnes will discover expertly fried seafood, a gumbo with a darkish, smoky roux, and specials that would vary from oxtails to child again ribs. All that high quality requires a little bit persistence, as Davis and his small group make every order as they’re acquired. The wait is price it.
Benchawan Jabthong Painter, Avenue to Kitchen
“Chef G,” as she’s recognized to mates and admirers, has come a great distance for her pop-up days of serving Thai omelettes on the City Harvest farmers market. She earned a James Beard Award at Avenue to Kitchen’s authentic location subsequent to a fuel station, and the restaurant’s transfer to a bigger house within the East Finish allowed her to additional broaden her imaginative and prescient of contemporary Thai delicacies. She continues to be impressed by nice elements — try the issues she’s doing with Australian wagyu, for instance — in addition to common journeys to Thailand.
David Skinner, Ishtia
After spending 10 years dazzling diners with theatrical displays at Eculent, the chef determined to change issues up by in search of inspiration from his Choctaw heritage. The result’s a restaurant that’s nonetheless not like every other eating expertise in Houston however with dishes that make the most of elements from Native American farmers and foragers. Now that Ishtia has been open for just a few months, Skinner plans to roll out new menus, together with one thing he calls the “meat trolley.”
Emmanuel Chavez, Tatemó
It’s laborious to consider that Chavez solely began promoting nixtamalized tortillas on the City Harvest farmers market 5 years in the past. In that brief period of time, he’s emerged as one of many rising stars in Houston’s culinary scene, incomes three James Beard Award finalist nominations, a Meals & Wine Greatest New Chef award, and a Michelin star. Whereas his ardour for masa is clear in each chew, it’s his remedy of his group and his assist for different Houston cooks that basically stands out. That generosity will gas no matter he does subsequent, as a result of it doesn’t look like one, 20-seat restaurant on the japanese fringe of Spring Department is a adequate stage for his expertise.
Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, Jun
Included among the many semifinalist nominees for Greatest Chef: Texas is that this dynamic duo of previous and and present Prime Chef contestants. Like a proverbial culinary Captain Planet, they’ve mixed their powers — her deep data of Mexican and Salvadoran flavors together with his mastery of Chinese language delicacies — into a complete that’s higher than the sum of its elements. Collectively, they’ve created memorable bites similar to carrots with salsa macha and and beef tartare with sesame buñuelo, together with an ever-evolving array of seasonally-inspired fare. Past their abilities within the kitchen, they’ve used Jun’s success to advertise up-and-coming cooks by internet hosting pop-ups and collaboration dinners.
Felipe Riccio, March
Veteran Houston restaurant followers could recall Felipe Riccio as a line cook dinner at Reef who hosted the occasional pop-up to showcase his love of pasta. Now, he’s main the kitchen on the metropolis’s Michelin-starred temple of Mediterranean effective eating. At March, Riccio combines his pleasure for feeding individuals with years of expertise and a rigorous, research-focused method to capturing the soul of the area that the restaurant is showcasing that season. The mix of data and keenness has created a restaurant that continues to enhance, elevating the chance that it could possibly be among the many first eating places in Texas to earn a second star.
Jason Ryczek, Little’s Oyster Bar
The California native has absolutely embraced his new house in Houston. At Little’s, he showcases each Pappas Eating places’ repute for Gulf Coast fare similar to redfish and snapper and his personal ardour for sustainably-sourced elements. Seasonal modifications and nightly specials give Ryczek the chance to problem his group to maintain the menu contemporary. Whereas he’s tailored to Pappas’ famously beneficiant parts, plans for an omakase-style tasting menu will give the chef to indicate off his love for an much more elevated expertise.
Manabu Horiuchi, Kata Robata/Katami
Winner of Chef of the 12 months in 2019, Hori-san is as soon as once more nominated in a class that he might, if we’re being trustworthy, win yearly. Simply in case anybody was taking Kata Robata’s constant excellence as a right, Katami serves as a reminder that he stays one in all Houston’s high cooks. Partially impressed by a visit to Japan, Hori-san makes use of Katami to showcase extra high Japanese elements, together with a number of preparations of wagyu.
Mayank Istwal, Musaafer
The chef’s luxurious tackle Indian delicacies helped lead the Galleria restaurant to a Michelin star. Alongside an a la carte menu with loads of selections, Istwal shows his expertise in a seasonal tasting menu that places an Indian spin on world flavors. Along with his abilities within the kitchen, the chef’s heat persona exemplifies the nice and cozy service that’s a core part of each meal at Musaafer. All of these qualities will serve him properly because the restaurant prepares to open its second location in New York Metropolis.
Thomas Bille, Stomach of the Beast
As this week’s James Beard Award finalist nomination for Greatest Chef: Texas demonstrates, the meals world is making its approach to Spring to pattern Bille’s eclectic fare. Whereas the unique iteration of Stomach of the Beast targeted totally on tacos, the brand new location gives Bille with the flexibility to showcase the total vary of his expertise. Mexican flavors stay on the coronary heart of the restaurant, however the eclectic menu provides a worldwide perspective, together with every part from handmade pastas to lamb shank rendang.
Victoria Elizondo, Cochinita & Co.
Chef, entrepreneur, cookbook creator — when Elizondo units her thoughts on one thing, she achieves it. From humble roots as a pop-up, she’s grown Cochintia & Co. right into a multifaceted enterprise that features each its restaurant within the East Finish and a thriving wholesale enterprise that provides totopos and tamales to quite a few Houston-area connoisseur grocers. A brand new location inside Lindale Park espresso store A 2nd Cup will convey her tacos and different Mexican fare to much more Houstonians.
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The Tastemaker Awards ceremony is delivered to you by Stella Artois, Chardon, Jim Beam Black, Ritual Zero Proof, Seedlip, Valencia’s Tex-Mex Storage, Hornitos, Ghost Hill Natural Vodka, PicMe Occasions, and extra to be introduced. A portion of proceeds will profit our nonprofit associate, the Southern Smoke Basis.
