Celebrate the Best Chefs of 2025!
The James Beard Awards are the most prestigious honors in the culinary world, recognizing exceptional talent and industry leaders. This year, at the 35th annual celebration in Chicago, the foundation announced the Best Chef Award winners for 2025.
These awards honor chefs who excel not only in culinary skill but also in leadership, community engagement, and sustainable practices. They promote racial and gender equity and support a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive.
Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation, highlights their mission: «These outstanding professionals are the epitome of Good Food for Good®,» elevating industry standards and pushing the boundaries of American cuisine.
The 2025 winners have shown remarkable talent and are committed to building a sustainable work environment in their regions. Their achievements inspire us all to pursue excellence and positive change.
Discover the inspiring stories behind the 2025 Best Chef Winners!
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Chef Jon Yao (C) and team at Kato
Experience Dining at Interior Kato Restaurant
Chef Jon Yao of Kato in Los Angeles has earned a One Michelin Star for his exceptional culinary skills. Located in an industrial space in Downtown LA, this restaurant offers a contemporary twist on Taiwanese flavors from Chef Yao’s childhood.
In his kitchen, Chef Yao features a wood-fired stove, creating a 12-course tasting menu that takes about three hours. The menu blends creative techniques with authentic tastes, providing a memorable dining experience.
Complement your meal with a remarkable wine list featuring over 3,000 selections, or indulge in signature cocktails. The bar also offers a private-label Kavalan whisky for a unique touch.
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Chef Noah Sandoval in the kitchen of Oriole
Dine at Interior Oriole Restaurant in Chicago
Chef Noah Sandoval of Oriole in Chicago has earned Two Michelin Stars for his culinary excellence. The restaurant is housed in a former warehouse, creating a unique industrial atmosphere. Guests enter through a converted freight elevator, setting the stage for an extraordinary dining experience.
Chef Sandoval offers a creative fusion of French and Japanese cuisine. The thoughtful tasting menu begins with aperitifs and small bites in a stylish bar area, featuring delights like maitake mushroom and ricotta tartlet.
Once seated in the dining room, guests enjoy luxurious dishes such as foie gras mousse. The menu continues with delicate flavors, like lightly cooked beets with sake lees, sea buckthorn, and puffed wild rice. Another highlight is skate wing and Dungeness crab with toasted kombu butter — pure indulgence.
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Chef Carlos Delgado at Causa
Interior Causa Restaurant
Carlos Delgado (Causa / Washington D.C.)
(One Michelin Star) Causa seats 20 people for a tasting menu that takes diners on a journey inspired by Peru. Michelin Guide says, «It all begins in Lima with coastal seafood, then progresses into the Andes and the Amazon. Chicha morada kombucha, made from purple corn, is a perfect partner for the Peruvian classic and namesake dish, causa, with its mashed potatoes hit with aji amarillo paste, then topped with cucumber, avocado and tuna tartare.
Next, the humble bomba rice is given a luxe glow-up courtesy of uni, caviar, and a criolla sauce. Dessert doesn’t disappoint, as in the passion fruit and mint gelato scoops piped with macambo mousse.»
Chef Karyn Tomlinson (c) and team at Myriel Restaurant
Karyn Tomlinson (Myriel / St. Paul, Minnesota)
Myriel is a unique, minimalist farm-to-table dining experience that highlights locally sourced ingredients. Swedish native Chef Tomlinson combines provincial French-inspired cuisine.
There is a 12-course tasting menu option here, focusing on foraged ingredients and whole-animal butchery.
Chef Salvador Alamilla at Amano Restaurant
Salvador Alamilla (Amano / Caldwell, Idaho)
Chef Alamilla was born and raised in Michoacan, Mexico. He was inspired by his mother’s cooking and used to make the salsas and tortillas he enjoyed every day.
With his mind set on opening a restaurant one day, he started as a dishwasher and worked his way up to Executive Chef within three years. He spent many months carefully crafting a menu for his place that takes into account his influences from SoCal, Michoacán, and Oaxacán-style Mexican food.
Amano is a craft Mexican kitchen situated in a modern setting, where they source authentic Mexican ingredients, handcraft their tortillas, and provide meals that highlight locally sourced products. They also have an extensive, handcrafted cocktail menu featuring premium tequilas.
Chef Vijay Kumar with Semma Restaurant
Interior Semma Restaurant
Vijay Kumar (Semma / New York)
(One Michelin star) Chef Vijay Kumar runs an authentic Indian dining experience. With the freedom to cook the food he knows best, he replicated his grandmother’s recipes at Semma.
Michelin Guide says, «This is authentic Indian cooking that doesn’t pander to American expectations, and if some of the dishes are unfamiliar, lean on the staff who know their stuff and are eager to share. One bite in, and you’ll quickly learn that this cooking is all heart.
Dishes are spicy, but the heat is used as elegantly as it is liberally. Start with the mulaikattiya thaniyam, the chef’s childhood snack that bursts with flavor. The gunpowder dosa, a classic rice and lentil crepe filled with potato masala, is on every table for a reason. Attu Kari sukkah is a falling-apart tender lamb in a dark brown curry redolent of warm spices.»
Chef Sky Haneul Kim of Gift Horse
Sky Haneul Kim (Gift Horse / Providence, Rhode Island)
Sky Haneul Kim was born and raised in Asan, South Korea, where her love for food and cooking was deeply rooted in family traditions and her country’s vibrant culinary culture. Sky has worked in some of the finest restaurants in the country, blending the bold, dynamic flavors of her Korean heritage with fresh, locally sourced ingredients from her surroundings. At Gift Horse, she combines Korean flavors with locally sourced Rhode Island produce and seafood.
Timothy Wastell (Antica Terra / Amity, Oregon)
At the famed valley winery, co-founded by wine-maker Maggie Harrison, Chef Timothy Wastell has launched new menus, both at Barrel Hall—the winery’s main tasting room—and at Table in the Trees, a large concrete table that runs through the property’s oak trees. There, guests can enjoy a tasting of five top-rated wines, along with a picnic in the woods.
Michelin starred Chef Nando Chang from Itamae AO Restaurant
Nando Chang (Itamae AO / Miami, Florida)
(One Michelin Star) This 10-seat counter by Chef Nando Chang in Midtown looks to set a new standard for Nikkei cuisine in the region. Michelin Guide says, “Those familiar with the chef’s past work in the Design District will take heart in how classic Peruvian-Japanese flavors as well as signature dishes have been reworked, reimagined, and refined. Searing levels of acidity and spice figure prominently on this bold-tasting menu, often in the form of leche de tigre. From lobster bisque with sweet potato gnocchi to creamy rice with Hokkaido scallops and parmesan, the cooking possesses style and substance in spades. Sourcing is a priority, with whole fish flown in from Japan, later to be broken down and occasionally strung up in dry-aging fridges along the wall.”
Chef Jake Howell of Peninsula Restaurant
Jake Howell (Peninsula / Nashville, Tennessee)
Chef and owner Jake Howell hails from Idaho and once aspired to be an artist. Now, with many cooking awards to his name, he is purely focused on the kitchen, incorporating a menu of Spanish and Basque-inspired food cooked with French techniques within an intimate 35-seat restaurant featuring a 10-seat bar.
Chef Yotaka Martin is a chef from Thailand who opened Lom Wong in Phoenix with her husband, Alex Martin
Yotaka Martin (Lom Wong / Phoenix, Arizona)
Yotaka grew up in the village of San Maket in Chiang Rai, Thailand, on a small family farm where they cultivated rice and raised animals. Her earliest memories are of being in the kitchen with her mother, aunts, uncles, and grandmother—cooking with what they harvested and passed down through generations. After moving to the United States, Yotaka set out to share the bold flavors of her childhood with dished loved in Thailand’s rural villages and rarely found outside of the country
Chef Thomas Bille of Belly of the Beast
Thomas Bille (Belly of the Beast / Spring, Texas)
Unafraid to mix and match the cuisines that inspire him, Chef Bille draws inspiration from global flavors while staying rooted in the traditions of Mexican cuisine. His menu is a mix of creativity, featuring dishes like Short Rib with Mole Negro, Potato Gnocchi with Scallops and Black Truffles, and Tandoori-spiced carrots.
Born into a Mexican household as a first-generation American, Bille grew up with food at the center of his daily life. With a chef for a father and a mother known for her extraordinary home cooking, he discovered his passion early, often learning alongside them in the kitchen. After honing his craft at top restaurants in Los Angeles, Chef Bille relocated to Spring, Texas, where he turned a lifelong dream into reality by opening his restaurant.
Outstanding Chef
The Outstanding Chef award is presented to the chef who sets high culinary standards and serves as a positive example for other food professionals. The winner was Jungsik Yim from Jungsik Restaurant in New York.
Best Emerging Chef
The Emerging Chef Award was presented to a chef who displays exceptional talent, character, and leadership ability and who is likely to make a significant impact in years to come. The award went to Phila Lorn from Mawn Restaurant in Philadelphia.
Outstanding Pastry Chef
The Outstanding Pastry Chef award honors exceptional skills, can be affiliated with any food business, and does not need a brick-and-mortar presence. The award went to Cat Cox with Country Bird Bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
