Talk about deja vu.
Kevin Binkley from Binkley’s in Cave Creek and Charleen Badman from FnB in Scottsdale are among the semifinalists for Best Chef Southwest in the 2016 James Beard Awards, the culinary world’s version of the Oscars.
In other categories, Sam Fox of Fox Restaurant Concepts (The Arrogant Butcher, Culinary Dropout, Olive & Ivy, and a dozen others) is a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur.
And Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix is in the running for Outstanding Restaurant.
That’s the exact same results as last year when the James Beard Foundation announced its so-called “long lists†of 20 semifinalists in numerous categories.
Each list will be culled to five finalists on March 15. Winners will be announced May 2.
Binkley (pictured on top) has made it into the final five the past four years, but never won.
Badman (middle), Fox (bottom), and Pizzeria Bianco have made the semifinalists lists multiple times, but none of the three has reached the final five in their respective categories.
Arizona has had more Best Chef Southwest winners (nine) than any other state, but has been shut out in the category since Nobuo Fukuda won in 2007.
See the complete list of semifinalists here.
