Three chefs and two restaurants from Pennsylvania were named semifinalists for the 2025 James Beard Awards, the culinary world’s equivalent of the Oscars.
The James Beard Foundation, a nonprofit culinary organization located in New York, established the awards in 1990 and has bestowed them annually since 1991, except in 2020 and 2021 when the organization scrapped them as the restaurant industry was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Restaurants apply for the awards. Judges, who mostly remain anonymous, try the cuisine before voting. Nominees are reviewed for the food as well as for a behavioral “code of ethics,” including how employees are treated…