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 2015 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.
The James Beard Foundation announced its so-called “long lists” of 20 semifinalists in numerous categories this morning. Each list will be culled to five finalists on March 24. Winners will be announced May 4.
It’s been a long drought for the Arizona, which has had more Best Chef Southwest winners (nine) than any other state, but has been skunked in the category since Nobuo Fukuda won in 2007.
Binkley (pictured on top) has made the final five for the past three years, losing last year to Houston chef Chris Shepherd. All four other finalists last year were from Texas.
Badman (middle) also made the long list of 20 semifinalists last year, as did Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Café, who didn’t make it this year.
Fox (bottom) has made the semifinals for several years in a row.
See the full lists of semfinalists here.
