7 chefs, teams from S.A. nominated

The James Beard Foundation has announced its list of semifinalists for the 2023 Restaurant and Chef Awards, and the San Antonio area is making its mark once again.

This year, seven individuals or teams have earned honors in this preliminary round of nominations. That follows a strong 2022 showing, in which eight area chefs, bakers and restaurants earned semifinalist honors.

This year’s semifinalists include several contestants in national categories and a tag team of talent in the Best Chef: Texas category. The nominees represent a broad and diverse swath of San Antonio’s food landscape, with everything from barbecue and beer to curry and cloth-napkin fine dining represented.

Noticeably absent among the semifinalists is chef Steve McHugh of the Pearl restaurant Cured, a perennial contender in both the Best Chef: Southwest and Best Chef: Texas category — the latter was created after a regional awards reorganization in 2020 — since 2016. McHugh

has advanced to the final round of those categories each year he was nominated.

This year’s crop of contestants doesn’t include any newcomers to the city’s food scene, but some are making their debut appearance on the James Beard Awards semifinalist list. Others are enjoying their second shot at glory.

Here are the semifinalist nominees:

Emerging Chef: Jennifer

Hwa Dobbertin has earned her first James Beard Award nod for her work at Best Quality Daughter, which she owns and operates at the Pearl. She’s crafted an Asian-inspired menu and smartly decorated space in a Victorian-era home that reflects her Chinese American upbringing in Texas.

Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker:

Pastry chef Anne Ng has secured Bakery Lorraine’s first appearance on the semifinalist

list this year. Bakery Lorraine has been instrumental in placing the Pearl on the culinary map with photogenic macarons and other Instagramready pastries.

Outstanding Bar: Under the leadership of owner and head brewer Marcus Baskerville, Weathered Souls Brewing Co. has received its first semifinalist nod this year. Baskerville gained global attention for the launch of the Black Is Beautiful campaign in 2020, in which breweries around the world could route proceeds from a specific beer recipe to charities and organizations working for racial equality.

Best Chef: Texas: The local nominees are:

• Lattoia Massey, better known as Chef Nicola Blaque, put her restaurant The Jerk Shack on national radars in 2019 by earning a spot on Eater’s 16 best new restaurants in America list. This is her first semifinalist nomination.

• Andrew Ho, Andrew Samia and Sean Wen of Curry Boys BBQ on the St. Mary’s Strip are making their James Beard debut with their unique blend of Asian curries and Texas barbecue.

• John Russ of the Castle Hills restaurant Clementine is back in the mix following his inaugural semifinalist nod in 2022.

• Ernest Servantes and David Kirkland of Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin also are returning for a second consecutive year for their outstanding barbecue that’s drawn statewide and national attention.

Bakery Lorraine Anne Ng of Bakery Lorraine has earned a semifinalist nod in the 2023 Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker category of the James Beard 2023 Restaurant and Chef Awards.