Best Chefs, Restaurants & Bars

Last month, the James Beard Foundation held its annual Restaurant and Chef Awards at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, marking 35 years of what many consider the highest honor in American dining. While the night crowned standout chefs and restaurants across the country, what stayed with many wasn’t just who won—it was what they chose to say once they got on stage.

While the spotlight was on national and regional winners across categories like Outstanding Chef, Best New Restaurant, and Best Bar, the evening also made space for something more grounded: the America’s Classics—a set of honors given to longtime, locally loved, independently owned restaurants that reflect the culinary identity of their communities. You can read more about this year’s America’s Classics honorees here.

But for now, here’s a look at this year’s standout wins across the national Restaurant and Chef categories.

2025 Chef & Restaurant Award Winners

Outstanding Chef: Jungsik Yim (Jungsik, New York, NY)

Jungsik Yim, the celebrated chef behind his eponymous fine-dining Korean restaurant in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, took home the Outstanding Chef award. Known for blending modernist techniques with deep-rooted Korean flavors, Yim has helped expand the definition of what luxury dining can look and taste like in the U.S.

Outstanding Restaurant: Frasca Food and Wine (Boulder, CO)

Located in Boulder, Colorado, Frasca Food and Wine has earned national acclaim for its Northern Italian–inspired cuisine and exacting hospitality. The restaurant, co-founded by master sommelier Bobby Stuckey and chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, has become a benchmark for service-driven excellence outside the expected coastal cities.

Best New Restaurant: Bûcheron (Minneapolis, MN)

Minneapolis’s Bûcheron was named Best New Restaurant of 2025. Helmed by chef Christopher Nye, the French-inspired spot stands out for its intimate, ingredient-driven menu and quiet confidence. In a year where many new restaurants leaned into maximalism, Bûcheron’s restraint and sense of place set it apart.

Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker: Cat Cox (Country Bird Bakery, Tulsa, OK)

Cat Cox of Country Bird Bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was recognized for her work as a baker and pastry chef, one of the few honorees this year to work outside a traditional restaurant setting. Her naturally leavened breads and seasonal pastries have drawn national attention to Tulsa’s growing food scene.

Outstanding Bakery: JinJu Patisserie (Portland, OR)

This year’s Outstanding Bakery award went to JinJu Patisserie, a jewel-box bakery in Portland known for its meticulous viennoiserie, elegant pastries, and refined, architectural approach to dessert. Founded by pastry chef Jin Caldwell and her partner, Kyurim “Q” Lee, the bakery has earned a national reputation for its attention to detail and artistic presentation.

While Portland has long been recognized as a haven for independent bakeries, JinJu’s win underscores the growing national attention toward pastry-forward shops operating outside of major coastal cities.

Outstanding Bar: Kumiko (Chicago, IL)

Chicago’s Kumiko was named Outstanding Bar this year, a win that recognized not just its cocktail program but the intention behind it. Led by bartender and owner Julia Momosé, Kumiko is known for drinks that are precise, expressive, and deeply personal, rooted in Japanese tradition but built for the moment. It’s the kind of place that reminds you a bar can be more than just a backdrop.

This year also marked the debut of three new beverage categories: Best New Bar, Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, and Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service—a sign that the Beard Foundation is starting to take bars, and the people who run them, more seriously.

The Theme That Kept Surfacing

One of the most consistent themes of the night was the immigrant story. Across three hours of speeches and introductions, the word immigrant surfaced 27 times—roughly once every seven minutes. And of the 15 moments where it appeared, 12 came directly from award recipients themselves.

Some honorees spoke plainly about their own beginnings. “Los Angeles is a city built by the toils of immigrant communities… now being ripped apart,” warned John Yao, accepting Best Chef: California for his work at Kato. Some honorees turned their gratitude outward. “I want to thank every immigrant that works for us,” said Chef Cindy Wolf of Charleston in Baltimore, accepting the award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. “We all know that in our business we are nothing without immigrants… We are better for immigrants, and we support you so much. I love every Latino that works for me from the bottom of my heart.”

And then there were those who widened the lens. Arjav Ezekiel, winner of Outstanding Beverage Service for Birdie’s in Austin, named his life “the story of undocumented immigration and its many subplots.” After describing years of fear, hiddenness, and labor done in the shadows, he closed with a line that brought the room to stillness:

“My undocumented journey ends here—but the fight doesn’t.”

These weren’t side comments. They were the pulse of the evening—woven into speeches, made visible on the stage.

And the numbers back it up–according to a recent report from the National Restaurant Association, 46% of chefs and 31% of cooks are foreign-born, compared to 18% of waitstaff. Even among restaurant managers, nearly one in four were born outside the U.S. Kitchens are also the most linguistically diverse workplaces in the industry, with half of chefs speaking a language other than English at home.

The medallions handed out that night may honor excellence, but the labor they represent has long been global and often invisible. That gap between recognition and reality was the story the night kept circling back to, whether through a speech, a name, or the quiet refrain that ran beneath it all.

About the James Beard Foundation

The James Beard Foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards recognize excellence across the hospitality industry, with a mission rooted in “Good Food for Good®.” In addition to celebrating culinary innovation and leadership, the Foundation expanded its recognition this year to include new beverage categories, while continuing its long-standing commitment to uplifting community-rooted restaurants through the America’s Classics honors.

You can view the full list of 2025 James Beard Award winners on the official James Beard Foundation website.