James Beard narrows awards list. Here’s how Wichita’s first-ever semifinalist fared:

It was an honor just to have been nominated.

On Wednesday, the James Beard Foundation announced its list of finalists for its 2025 awards, and Wichita’s semifinalist was not on it.

In fact, no Kansas restaurants were on it.

In January, the foundation put out a list of semifinalists for this year’s awards, which are like the Academy Awards for the food and beverage industry. For the first time ever, a Wichita restaurant was on that list. Georges French Bistro, the restaurant George Youssef opened at 4618 E. Central in 2015, was one of 20 semifinalists nationwide in the category of Outstanding Restaurant.

The new list released on Wednesday narrowed that pool to five finalists. They were:

▪ Coquine, Portland

▪ Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, Colorado

▪ Galit, Chicago

▪ Nonesuch, Oklahoma City

▪ Oberlin, Providence, Rhode Island

“At least we got recognized,” Youssef said on Wednesday. “Hopefully we’ll get it sometime soon before I retire.”

A few other Kansas restaurants also had been named semifinalists in various other categories. The Best Chef Midwest semifinalist list included Linda Duerr of The Restaurant at 1900 in Mission Woods as well as Rozz Petrozz of Saltwell Farm Kitchen in Overbrook.

John Brown’s Underground in Lawrence made the list for Outstanding Bar. And Jay Sanders of Wild Child in Shawnee was a semifinalist for Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service.

But none of the Kansas nominees made it to the next round.

The awards also recognize the best chefs in each region of the United States. The five finalists for Best Chef: Midwest, which covers Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, were:

▪ Shigeyuki Furukawa, Kado no Mise, Minneapolis

▪ Diane Moua, Diane’s Place, Minneapolis

▪ Loryn Nalic, Balkan Treat Box, Webster Groves, Missouri

▪ Karyn Tomlinson, Myriel, St. Paul

▪ David Utterback, Ota and Yoshitomo, Omaha

The winners of the awards will be named at a June 16 ceremony in Chicago. To see a full list of finalists, visit www.jamesbeard.org

This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 3:42 PM.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.