Only 2 North Texas Chefs Make the James Beard Finalists Cut

The James Beard Foundation announced the 2026 restaurant and chef nominees today. Back in January, we learned that eight North Texas restaurants and chefs were semifinalists. Here’s a quick rundown of who/what was in the running as semifinalists:

• Best New Restaurant
  Far-Out
• Outstanding Bakery
  Starship Bagel
• Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker
  Maggie Huff, Lucia
• Outstanding Bar
  Ayahuasca Cantina
• Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service
  Gabe Sanchez, Midnight Rambler
• Best Chef: Texas
  Masayuki Otaka, Mabo
  Patrick Hicks, Smoke’N Ash BBQ (Arlington)
  Scott Girling, Osteria II Muro (Denton)

Best Pastry Chef

A search for the term “Dallas” on the James Beard Foundation’s 12-page press release for this year’s finalists yields only one hit. Maggie Huff of Lucia is a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. We love this for the small Italian restaurant in Oak Cliff. Huff has done some amazing work in Dallas.

This makes eight total nominations for Lucia in one way or another, starting with a 2014 semifinalist selection for owner and chef David Uygur for Best Chef Southwest. He’s been nominated five other times and was a finalist twice. Additionally, the restaurant was a finalist for best restaurant in 2023.

This is Huff’s third nomination; she was a semifinalist in 2017 for her work at FT33, then again in 2020 at Homewood. Let’s bring one home! It’s time.

Best Chef

Chef Scott Girling of Osteria Il Muro in Denton is a finalist for Best Chef Texas. Below is the full list with other finalists:

• Ope Amosu, ChòpnBlọk, Houston, TX
• Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, JŪN, Houston, TX
• Scott Girling, Osteria Il Muro, Denton, TX
• Gabe Padilla and Melissa Padilla, Café Piro, Socorro, TX
• Finn Walter, The Nicolett, Lubbock, TX

Osteria Il Muro is a quaint Italian restaurant with house-cured meats and hand-rolled pasta. Chef and owner Scott Girling moved to Italy after culinary school in Denton. He returned to North Texas and opened this restaurant in a charming 80-year-old house in Denton. The menu is a four-course trip that starts with house-made breads and ends with inventive dishes like tajarin with duck speck.

Reservations for Osteria Il Muro open at noon on the last Monday of the month for the following month. That was yesterday … and April is all booked. Set an alarm for May. However, they open the Pasta Table, a bar-style pasta table, daily at noon. Good luck.

Other Restaurant Awards

Below is the full list of the best new restaurant finalists:

• 1033 Omakase, Milwaukee, WI
• Agnes and Sherman, Houston, TX
• Anjin, Kansas City, MO
• Emmett, Philadelphia, PA
• Ki, Los Angeles, CA
• Lei, New York, NY
• Maison Bar à Vins, Washington, D.C.
• Merci, Charleston, SC
• Robin, St. Louis, MO
• Tamba, Las Vegas, NV

And here is the list of outstanding restaurant finalists:

• The Catbird Seat, Nashville, TN
• The Four Horsemen, Brooklyn, NY
• Kalaya, Philadelphia, PA
• Mixtli, San Antonio, TX
• Vicia, St. Louis, MO