{"id":235535,"date":"2026-04-05T01:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/235535\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:44:10","slug":"only-2-north-texas-chefs-named-2026-james-beard-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/235535\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 2 North Texas Chefs Named 2026 James Beard Finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Chef
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tChef Scott Girling at Osteria Il Muro is a James Beard Finalist. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sean Welch<\/p>\n

The James Beard Foundation announced the 2026 restaurant and chef nominees today. Back in January, we learned that eight North Texas restaurants and chefs were semifinalists. Here\u2019s a quick rundown of who\/what was in the running as semifinalists: <\/p>\n

Best New Restaurant
Far-Out
\nOutstanding Bakery
Starship Bagel
\nOutstanding Pastry Chef or Baker
Maggie Huff, Lucia
\nOutstanding Bar
Ayahuasca Cantina
\nOutstanding Professional in Cocktail Service
Gabe Sanchez, Midnight Rambler
\nBest Chef: Texas
Masayuki Otaka, Mabo
Patrick Hicks, Smoke\u2019N Ash BBQ (Arlington)
Scott Girling, Osteria II Muro (Denton)<\/p>\n

Best Pastry Chef<\/p>\n

A search for the term \u201cDallas\u201d on the James Beard Foundation\u2019s 12-page press release for this year\u2019s finalists yields only one hit. Maggie Huff of Lucia is a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. We love this for the small Italian restaurant in Oak Cliff. Huff has done some amazing work in Dallas. <\/p>\n

This makes eight total nominations for Lucia in one way or another, starting with a 2014 semifinalist selection for owner and chef David Uygur for Best Chef Southwest. He\u2019s been nominated five other times and was a finalist twice. Additionally, the restaurant was a finalist for best restaurant in 2023. <\/p>\n

This is Huff\u2019s third nomination; she was a semifinalist in 2017 for her work at FT33, then again in 2020 at Homewood. Let\u2019s bring one home! It\u2019s time. <\/p>\n

Best Chef <\/p>\n

Chef Scott Girling of Osteria Il Muro in Denton is a finalist for Best Chef Texas. Below is the full list with other finalists:<\/p>\n

Ope Amosu, Ch\u00f2pnBl\u1ecdk, Houston, TX
\nEvelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, J\u016aN, Houston, TX
\nScott Girling, Osteria Il Muro, Denton, TX
\nGabe Padilla and Melissa Padilla, Caf\u00e9 Piro, Socorro, TX
\nFinn Walter, The Nicolett, Lubbock, TX<\/p>\n

Osteria Il Muro is a quaint Italian restaurant with house-cured meats and hand-rolled pasta. Chef and owner Scott Girling moved to Italy after culinary school in Denton. He returned to North Texas and opened this restaurant in a charming 80-year-old house in Denton. The menu is a four-course trip that starts with house-made breads and ends with inventive dishes like tajarin with duck speck.<\/p>\n

Reservations<\/a> for Osteria Il Muro open at noon on the last Monday of the month for the following month. That was yesterday \u2026 and April is all booked. Set an alarm for May. However, they open the Pasta Table, a bar-style pasta table, daily at noon. Good luck.<\/p>\n

Other Restaurant Awards<\/p>\n

Below is the full list of the best new restaurant finalists:<\/p>\n

1033 Omakase, Milwaukee, WI
\nAgnes and Sherman, Houston, TX
\nAnjin, Kansas City, MO
\nEmmett, Philadelphia, PA
\nKi, Los Angeles, CA
\nLei, New York, NY
\nMaison Bar \u00e0 Vins, Washington, D.C.
\nMerci, Charleston, SC
\nRobin, St. Louis, MO
\nTamba, Las Vegas, NV<\/p>\n

And here is the list of outstanding restaurant finalists: <\/p>\n

The Catbird Seat, Nashville, TN
\nThe Four Horsemen, Brooklyn, NY
\nKalaya, Philadelphia, PA
\nMixtli, San Antonio, TX
\nVicia, St. Louis, MO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chef Scott Girling at Osteria Il Muro is a James Beard Finalist. Sean Welch The James Beard Foundation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,2595,4895,2808,1313,5177],"class_list":{"0":"post-235535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news","11":"tag-awards-accolades","12":"tag-bishop-arts","13":"tag-chefs","14":"tag-denton","15":"tag-national-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}