Tucson chef named semifinalist for James Beard Award

A Tucson chef and a Bisbee bakery are semifinalists for the prestigious James Beard Award, a national honor that recognizes culinary greatness in cooking, baking and hospitality.

Jose Contreras, chef-owner of the 3-year-old Amelia’s Mexican Kitchen, which has two locations at 5553 E. Grant Road and 5851 N. Oracle Road, is one of six Arizona chefs named a Best Chef: Southwest semifinalist, which honors chefs in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Oklahoma; Texas has its own Best Chef designation.

Bisbee’s Bakery Patisserie Jacqui is among 20 bakeries nationwide up for Outstanding Bakery.

“It’s unbelievable,” Contreras said hours after learning the news from one of his assistant chefs. “This is the Oscars for gastronomy. I’m very, very excited for Tucson. I’m very excited for my restaurant, Amelia’s. It’s been like four years and I cannot believe ... what happened today.”

Contreras opened Amelia’s in 2021 in a small space on East Grant Road, serving the Southern Mexican cuisine he grew up eating from his grandmother Amelia. The majority of the dishes coming from his scratch kitchen are based on his abuela Amelia’s recipes.

Contreras is the latest Tucson chef to make the semifinals for the regional chef nod; Tumerico’s Wendy Garcia and Barista del Barrio’s Flavia Briones were semifinalists last year.

The last time a Tucson chef won a James Beard was in 2018 when El Guero Canelo‘s Daniel Contreras won in the American Classics category.

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Bisbee baker Jaqueline Oatman was stunned when she heard the news Wednesday morning from a reporter’s text message. She never imagined that her Bakery Patisserie Jacqui, where she serves stunning sweet and savory croissants and pastries from a cute pink storefront on Bisbee’s Main Street, would blip a nationwide radar as prestigious as the James Beard Foundation.

“I never really expected this,” she said, getting choked up as the nomination sunk in. “I’m coming up on my sixth-year anniversary and I really built this grassroots from scratch. I just never thought I would even last this long.”

Oatman, who moved to the former Southern Arizona mining town 11 years ago, taught herself how to make croissants and created a menu of sweet and her favorite savory, including the Greek-leaning breakfast with spanakopita filling topped with an egg and the decadent What the Duck!! made with roasted duck and caramelized onion jam.

Oatman said she doesn’t expect to move beyond the James Beard semifinal stage, “but it’s just an absolute honor to be thought about and to be on anybody’s radar coming from tiny little Bisbee.”

Tucson has one James Beard Award-winning baker, Barrio Bread‘s Don Guerra who won in 2022.

Meanwhile, two former Tucsonans also were named semifinalists:

• Tucson High alumnus and former Casino del Sol mixologist Aaron DeFeo’s downtown Phoenix cocktail lounge Little Rituals is a semifinalist for the bar honor for the second straight year.

• Former Hacienda del Sol pastry chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph is vying for the top James Beard Award as Outstanding Chef with his 3-year-old Austin, Texas, new age Carribbean restaurant Canje. Canje is  part of the Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, started by former Tucson restauranteur Kevin Fink and his wife, Alicynn; Bristol-Joseph; Rand Egbert; and Berty Richter. The company has a dozen concepts operating in Austin and San Antonio. 

  Finalists will be announced in April, and the awards, presented by the James Beard Foundation, will be presented in Chicago in June.