Two Tucson chefs vying for the 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest were snubbed when the list of finalists was released on Wednesday, April 3.
This was the second straight year that the James Beard Foundation overlooked Tumerico chef-owner Wendy Garcia for the regional nod. She was a semifinalist in 2023.
Garcia had been optimistic when she was named a semifinalist in late January, a day after Tumerico, at 2526 E. Sixth St., was named Yelp’s No. 1 place to eat in 2024.
“I really wanted to be on that list,” she said after the James Beard nominees were announced. “I really want to go to Chicago in June. It would be an honor to just be there even as one of the finalists.”
This was the first nomination for Barista del Barrio chef-owner Flavia Briones, who was stunned when she got news in January that she was on the list. Briones at the time said she knew nothing about the James Beard Awards, which are the equivalent of the Oscars in the foodiverse.
Flavia Briones, chef-owner of Barista del Barrio, lost out on her first James Beard Award nomination.
Meanwhile, Nogales-born chef Rene Andrade of Phoenix’s popular Sonoran restaurant Bacanora is still in the running for Best Chef Southwest and is one of only two Arizonans on the finalists list. Crystal Kass, who runs the pastry side of the upscale restaurant Valentine in Phoenix’s iconic Melrose neighborhood, is up for outstanding pastry chef or baker.
Conde Nast Traveler praised Valentine and Kass in particular for presenting “a bold vision for Arizona food,” crediting Kass with establishing “a program melding classical European staples and, again, those desert ingredients. Flours like white Sonoran white, blue cornmeal, red fife and mesquite flour give Arizonan character and unique zones of flavor to specialties like mesquite-miso chocolate chip cookies and chiltepin eclairs. The pastry game here is deep and magically weird.”
If Kass wins, she would join Tucson’s Don Guerra of Barrio Bread, who won the baker honor in 2022.
The winners will be announced at the Chicago awards ceremonies in June.
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