James Beard Awards 2025: Dallas Chefs and Restaurants
Since 1994, no one in Dallas-Fort Worth has won a James Beard Award for Best Chef. That didn’t change in 2025, when the awards did not sway in the favor of North Texas’ top toques.
Of the five competitive awards for a D-FW chef or restaurant, none in our region won. Again.
There’s no crying in the kitchen, however, because Dallas managed to have a memorable night. Dallas chef Chad Houser was honored as Humanitarian of the Year for his work at Cafe Momentum, a restaurant that hires teenagers who have been arrested and/or incarcerated.
That’s an honor he already won, back in April 2025. The evening of the James Beard ceremony, Houser talked about his mission to help kids who need it.
“For me, it’s all about chances,” Houser said in a red carpet interview.
Second chances aren’t enough: It’s about “first [chances] through one hundredth.”
Perhaps that point of view could apply to the Dallas restaurateurs who left empty-handed at the Chicago ceremony.
Oren Salomon, whose North Texas bagel shop Starship Bagel did not win for Outstanding Bakery, said in a text message as the ceremony concluded that he’s proud of where he’s from.
“With or without recognition, I love serving where I’m from and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he texted.
“I’m thankful for Dallas.”
Dallas had five chefs or restaurants up for James Beard Awards in its final round in 2025, in addition to the noncompetitive Humanitarian of the Year honor. Let’s remember them one more time:
Chad Houser of Cafe Momentum
Winner, Humanitarian of the Year
It could be tough to operate a restaurant where the servers are teenagers who have previously broken the law. Executive director Chad Houser said working with kids is the easiest part of his job.
Houser started Cafe Momentum as a small operation meant to help teenagers in a big way. Fast-forward 10 years, and more than 1,200 men and women between the ages of 15 and 19 have gone through the Cafe Momentum program, where each teen learned to serve customers and cook restaurant-quality food alongside required life skills classes.
The Dallas nonprofit will move to a bigger facility in 2026 and establish a new headquarters, thanks to the generosity of Dallas group The Meadows Foundation.
Cafe Momentum has expanded to Pittsburgh and has plans to open next in Atlanta and Denver.
“I’m often asked if Cafe Momentum has to be a restaurant,” he said as he accepted the award, “and I always say, ‘emphatically yes.’ Our industry is an integral part of every single community across the country.”
He said 60,000 children are incarcerated in the United States.
His message to them: “We see you, we’re ready for you, we’re here for you.”
RJ Yoakum, formerly of Georgie
Nominee, Emerging Chef
RJ Yoakum’s menu at Georgie, a fine-dining restaurant at Knox and Travis streets, received a Recommended rating from Michelin in 2024.
Yoakum was removed from his executive chef role at Georgie just days before the James Beard Awards’ June 16 ceremony. The owner of Georgie has been tight-lipped about why he was let go, and Yoakum has not responded to requests for comment.
Yoakum worked previously at The French Laundry, a 3-star Michelin restaurant regarded as one of the best in the United States.
Other nominees for Emerging Chef were Kaitlin Guerin of Lagniappe Bakehouse in New Orleans, Nikhil Naiker of NIMKI in Providence and Jane Sacro Chatham of Vicia in St. Louis. Winner: Phila Lorn of Mawn in Philadelphia.
Regino Rojas of Purépecha in Dallas
Nominee, Best Chef: Texas
