The James Beard Award is considered one of the highest honors in the restaurant industry.  | Photo illustration by Lille Allen/Getty Images for the James Beard Foundation Local names that made the final cut include vegan tasting pad Mita, restaurateurs Scott Drewno and Danny Lee, and pastry chef Susan Bae The James Beard Foundation today announced its finalist nominees for its 2025 awards, narrowing down the list of semifinalists from January to a final crop of contenders across more than two dozen categories. Widely known as the “Oscars” of the food world, the annual honors continue to address the findings of an extensive 2021 audit to confront the longstanding biases baked into the awards process. A newer Emerging Chef category doesn’t have an age cutoff. Locally, that included Hiraya’s Filipino chef Paolo Dungca, who didn’t advance to the final round today. Mita Mita’s watermelon crudo. D.C.’s vegetable-fueled tasting room Mita continues to rack up national accolades in its first year of service (including a Michelin star), and today is no different; co-owners Miguel Guerra and Tatiana Mora just clinched a finalist nomination for Best New Restaurant in the U.S. The category’s 10 finalists also includes a Floridian restaurant with local ties: chef Ryan Ratino’s Ômo by Jônt, the Winter Park offshoot of the two-Michelin-starred original in D.C. And Moon Rabbit’s Susan Bae is up for Outstanding Pastry Chef in the U.S. for the second year in a row. JBF added three brand-new categories in the beverage segment for 2025. That includes Best New Bar, which included a local semifinalist nomination for Adams Morgan’s lively Brazilian bar Cana, which didn’t make the cut today; Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service; and Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service. The long semifinalist list for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic was whittled down to just two names today: Henji Cheung of Columbia Heights’ Chinese darling Queen’s English and Carlos Delgado of Shaw’s Peruvian prix-fixe place Causa/Amazonia (which was a 2023 JBA finalist for Best New Restaurant). And for the first time in years, D.C. won’t be home to the country’s Outstanding Chef; the huge nationwide accolade went to Albi’s Michael Rafidi in 2024 and Oyster Oyster’s Rob Rubba in 2023). Centrolina chef Amy Brandwein was the sole local semifinalist contender for 2025 but did not make the final cut today. On Monday, June 16, winners will be unveiled during a glitzy gala at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago (and livestreamed on Eater). Here’s the full list of D.C. area chefs and restaurants looking to win big. Outstanding Restaurateur Scott Drewno and Danny Lee, The Fried Rice Collective (Anju, Chiko, and I Egg You), Washington, D.C. Best New Restaurant Mita, Washington, D.C. Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker Susan Bae, Moon Rabbit, D.C. Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program Charleston, Baltimore, Maryland Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA) Henji Cheung, Queen’s English, Washington, D.C. Carlos Delgado, Causa and Amazonia, Washington, D.C. Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Foundation Awards. ...read more read less