James Beard Foundation names its 2026-2027 TasteTwenty
Twenty-six chefs across 19 US cities join the Foundation's annual list of talent, picked as much for sourcing and team-building as for plating.
The James Beard Foundation has named 26 chefs working across 20 restaurants to its 2026-2027 TasteTwenty, the annual list of American chefs the Foundation tracks as the industry's ones to watch.
The class spans 19 cities, from Houston to Portland, Oregon, and crosses cuisines as different as Gujarati-inflected Gulf Coast cooking and Cambodian noodle soup. Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, who run JŪN and Third Place in Houston, make the TasteTwenty list alongside Yara Herrera of Hellbender in New York and Christian Irabén of Amparo Fondita in Washington, D.C.
Phila Lorn of Mawn in Philadelphia, a James Beard Award winner, joins Misti Norris of Far Out in Dallas and Sophina Uong of Mister Mao in New Orleans. Zubair Mohajir and Rishi Kumar, who run both Mirra and Mariela in Chicago, and Parnass Savang and Rod Lassiter of Talat Market in Atlanta round out a cohort heavy on chef pairs running more than one kitchen.
A list that rewards sourcing and team-building as much as plating.
Who made the TasteTwenty
The Foundation says TasteTwenty chefs are picked for culinary talent and for what they do beyond the stove: supporting sustainable agriculture, investing in their teams, sourcing higher-quality ingredients or pushing for a steadier food supply chain. The list carries no ranking or scores; it is a curated group, not a competition.
Several names arrive with Beard pedigree already attached. Lorn is a past Award winner, and Marc Quiñones of La Fonda on the Plaza in Santa Fe is a former Award semifinalist and Legacy Network alumnus. Others, among them Erin Miller of Urban Hearth in Boston and LT Smith of Chilte in Phoenix, are first-time Foundation honorees running small, chef-owned rooms rather than groups.
Taste America carries the list on tour
TasteTwenty chefs represent their home cities through Taste America, the Foundation's touring dinner series that pairs local talent with national names at each stop. Nashville's leg lands on November 19 at Saint Elle, hosted by TasteTwenty chef Mathew Meeker of Fancypants.
The Foundation has not published the full Taste America calendar for the 2026-2027 season, though more city dates are expected to follow the Nashville stop. The approach echoes the UK's National Chef of the Year final, though that contest narrows ten cooks to one winner rather than naming a shared list of chefs to watch.
