Category: James Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & Winners

2023 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" Finalist2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" FinalistAsianJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersLaoOklahomaRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Ma Der Lao Kitchen – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In Italian, the term “mangia, mangia,” is an encouragement to enjoy food abundantly.  In Spanish, the polite phrase “Buen Provecho” translates to “enjoy your meal.”  The French term for “enjoy your meal” is “bon appétit” while the Cajun equivalent is “Allons manger.”   You’re probably acquainted with most of these terms, but here’s one you may not know.  In Lao, “Ma Der!”(ma-derr) is a phrase that basically means “come eat! or “come through!”  Throngs of Oklahoma City’s savvy diners have been coming to eat at Ma Der Lao Kitchen since 2022.  It’s a good bet not all of them realize the…

2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistBreakfast BurritosJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicanNew MexicoNew Mexico Culinary Treasures TrailRating: Excellent

Chope’s – La Mesa, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:00 PM

During my Kim’s inaugural visit shortly after we retired from the Air Force in 1995, we ran into a former Las Cruces resident now living in the nation’s capital. His near teary-eyed testimony about how much he missed Chope’s was more powerful than a Sunday sermon.   When he kissed the hallowed ground in front of Chope’s, we knew he meant it.  An elderly gentleman recounted the time Chope’s salsa was so hot it made him hiccup for three days.  A middle-aged woman from Las Cruces rhapsodized about Chope’s chile rellenos, her testimony practically eliciting involuntary salivation in the impromptu audience…

2023 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Texas" Semifinalist2024 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Texas" Semifinalist2025 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Texas" SemifinalistJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMexicanRating: OutstandingTacosTexasUnited States

ELEMI – El Paso, Texas

Gil Garduno11:01 PM

My friend Steve Coleman, owner of the well-written and impeccably researched Steve’s Food Blog has become quite a culinary anthropologist.  Not only does he provide his readers with comprehensive reviews of restaurants throughout the fruited plain, he explores the genesis of the foods he writes about.  One of his passions is to define what constitutes El Paso style Mexican cuisine–its provenance and the cultural role that cuisine has played over the generations.  As he’s discovered, El Paso style Mexican style is still evolving and redefining itself.  Some of that has occurred organically as other cultures have influenced dynamic changes.  Evolution…

2025 - James Beard Foundation Seminfinalist in the "Outstanding Wine and Beverage ProgramMexicanRating: N/R (Not Rated)TacosTexasUnited States

Taconeta – El Paso, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The meme below purports to show where the highest quality of tacos in Texas can be found.    Study the map and you’ll get the impression the meme’s creator believes tacos are “nonexistent” throughout about half of the Lone Star State.  That includes the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as well as all of West Texas.   Most of what the meme’s creator believes are the Lone Star State’s “best tacos” can be found only in San Antonio and the South Texas Plains as well as in portions of the Texas Hill Country.  A “best tacos” designation is also accorded to the El…

2026 James Beard Foundation: "Best Chef - Texas" SemifinalistBarbecueJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMichelin: One StarRestaurants Which Have Earned Michelin HonorsTexasUnited States

La Barbecue – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Every summer, a predictable ritual takes place. After hibernating comfortably since the previous autumn, men attired in aprons emblazoned with the slogan “kiss the cook” will selflessly volunteer to “cook” a meal. This, of course, means grilling, a decidedly masculine affectation and the only type of cooking most men can be entrusted to do. When this ritual is completed and guests are sated, lavish praise and thanks are heaped upon the “chef.” In truth, the only aspects of this ritual for which men are typically responsible is getting the grill lit, placing the meats on the grill and turning them…

2022 James Beard Foundation Award for "Emerging Chef"MexicanMichelin: Bib GourmandRating: N/R (Not Rated)Restaurants Which Have Earned Michelin HonorsTacosTexasUnited States

Nixta Taqueria – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Man cannot live on barbecue alone–not even in Austin, Texas where the world’s very best barbecue is to be found.  To limit one’s self to barbecue–as transformative as it may be–is to deprive yourself of some of the best Mexican food and best fried chicken in the known world.  Though the primary purpose of my week-long visit to the City of the Violet Crown was to visit Michelin starred barbecue restaurants, to have done so have been “going deep,”  exploring just one segment of the Central Texas culinary Utopia.  “Going wide” meant exploring options beyond barbecue–options such as some of…

2025 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Texas" SemifinalistBarbecueJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMichelin: One StarRating: N/R (Not Rated)Restaurants Which Have Earned Michelin HonorsTexasUnited States

LeRoy And Lewis Barbecue – Austin, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

What can you say about a wife who practically pushes her husband out the door so he can gallavant through the Lone Star State in pursuit of barbecue?  That’s precisely what my Kim did.  She didn’t do so out of malice or because she’s tired of me.  Far from it.  We’ve been together for four decades.  There’s no one whose company I enjoy more and it’s mutual.  Throughout my Air Force career, we were stationed far away from family and had only ourselves to rely on.  We’ve grown together both figuratively and literally (mostly me).  While I would love for…

2022 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueBreakfastBreakfast BurritosClosed in 2026Gone But Not ForgottenJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

My Moms – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:01 PM

“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” —Rudyard Kipling Should you have the pleasure of getting to know Chef Marie Yniguez, even a little, you’ll come away with three absolute certainties.  First, Albuquerque’s arguably most famous celebrity chef is unabashedly herself.  The happy, loving, gregarious person you’ve seen on numerous Food Network culinary competitions doesn’t have a pretentious bone in her body.  She is as genuine and sincere as they come.  Though she left the hardscrabble mining town of Hurley, New Mexico a lifetime ago, she remains a country girl at heart. And even though she was…

2025 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistAlbuquerqueDog FriendlyFine DiningJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew Mexico

Level 5 Rooftop Restaurant at Hotel Chaco – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

The Hotel For a nearly four-hundred year period, the Anasazi civilization which preceded New Mexico’s Pueblo cultures achieved the pinnacle of its technological and cultural advancement at a magnificent,  deep gorge called Chaco Canyon. Within the walls of Chaco Canyon, construction of multi-level buildings sprung up, some structures accommodating as many as  800 rooms. Not surprisingly, lower walls had to be made massive in order to support heavy stone walls up to five floors high.  It took remarkable planning to locate doors, passageways, kivas and other architectural features.  At five stories high,  Pueblo Bonito was the largest structure and the…

2025 James Beard Foundation "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMariscosMexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa FeTacos

Escondido – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” ~Luke 8:17 “Escondido (which translates from Spanish to “hidden”) sure proves that Bible verse wrong,” I lamented as I cursed Google Maps for having led me to a nondescript residential neighborhood in Santa Fe.  Though not as execrable as the time Google Maps insisted I make a left onto a crude and rocky dry wash when trying to get to Kayenta, Arizona, I nonetheless took Google’s name in vain then followed my instincts.  Fortunately, crossing over Agua…

2024 James Beard Foundation (JBF) Outstanding Restaurant Finalist2024 James Beard Foundation (JBF) Outstanding Restaurant Semifinalist2025 James Beard Foundation Outstanding Hospitality FinalistJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersMexicanMichelin: One StarRating: N/R (Not Rated)Restaurants Which Have Earned Michelin HonorsTexasUnited States

Mixtli – San Antonio, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

A quote attributed to Marcel Marceau, the French mime famous for his sad-faced clown, aptly describes my attempts at describing a meal at Mixtli: “Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words”  (not that being without words has ever stopped me). Life’s events often include moments which move you deeply and stir your very soul. My inaugural dining experience at Mixtli was not so profound and cathartic as to move me to drastically change my life, but it certainly prompted a stirring awakening as I experienced what was conceivably the best restaurant meal I’ve ever…