We're on the final stretch of the 2025 edition of our annual CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, celebrating the people and places that make Dallas a dynamic dining destination.

The awards include two parts: this special editorial series which highlights restaurants, bars, and chefs who've been nominated in nine categories by our judging panel comprised of last year's winners and local dining experts; and a celebration of the nominees and the winners at an awards ceremony and signature tasting event on Thursday, May 1 at the new Astoria Event Venue. (You can still get a ticket, on sale now: $75 for general admission or $99 for VIP.)

So far, the series has covered Restaurant of the Year, Neighborhood Restaurants, Rising Star Chef, Best Coffee Shops, Best Eatertainment, Best Bars, and best Pastry Chef. We've also launched our Best New Restaurant category, with an accompanying tournament where you can vote once per day for your favorite nominee in a bracket-style competition. It has already reached the final round and it's down to two nominees: Be Home Soon vs. Nikki Greek Bistro. Voting ends on April 29.

Chef of the Year is our final category. Here are our 10 nominees for the Tastemaker Awards Chef of the Year in 2025:

Jeff Bekavac, Goodwins
There may not be a more well-regarded in Dallas right now than Bekavac. His low-key charm and sharply tuned wit — not to mention a notoriously buzzy burger — have helped turn Goodwins, the restaurant he and partner Austin Rodgers opened in the iconic former Blue Goose Cantina on Greenville Avenue, into one of the city's most popular restaurants. Bekavac originally went to Texas A&M before pivoting to restaurants, working with present-day legends such as chefs Jason Dady and Nick Badovinus (Neighborhood Services, Town Hearth, Montlake Cut) before finally opening his own place.

Michelle Carpenter, Restaurant Beatrice
There is Michelle Carpenter the chef — founder of two acclaimed restaurants, both in Oak Cliff: Zen Sushi, the trailblazing sushi spot, and Restaurant Beatrice, famed for Cajun fare. Then there is Michelle Carpenter the person, who designed a tuition-free program to boost women and create a more positive restaurant culture; and who established an in-house environmental program with composting, re-purposing oil, and encouraging guests to bring their own to-go boxes to avoid single-use containers. No surprise, Carpenter is a return nominee who's earned nods in 2022 and in 2023 .

Gabriel DeLeon, Mi Dia From Scratch
DeLeon grew up working at his family's restaurants, then attended Art Institute of Dallas and the Culinary Institute of America — giving him the perfect combination of technical skills and personal connection to the cuisine. At Mi Dia, which has three locations in Grapevine, Plano and Flower Mound, he blends traditional Mexico City recipes with modern Santa Fe and Tex-Mex flavors on dishes such as the New Mexico tampiquena: a 28-day aged marinated skirt steak grilled over pecan wood with blue corn tortillas, cheese & onion stacked enchiladas with New Mexico red & green chile sauces.

Mansour Gorji, Gorji
From an early age, Persian-born Gorji was in the kitchen, taking turns with cousins cooking for the immediate family. He trained to be a mechanical engineer and worked in that field before returning to the food realm in which he grew up. He came to Texas and worked at others' restaurants before taking over a former fast-food restaurant and opening his eponymous place which slowly evolved into the fine dining restaurant it is today, celebrating more than two decades, and making cutting-edge moves like eliminating the concept of tipping.

Jeffery Hobbs, Slow Bone
Cheff Hobbs took a roundabout route to find his way into barbecue: The quintessential nice Midwesterner went to college and then segued into the restaurant realm — including casual and fine-dining restaurants such as Celebration, Sissy's Southern Kitchen, and Suze, before joining Slow Bone in 2014. He's brought that chef perspective to the cuisine, with fantastic sides and award-winning fried chicken along with brisket — earning him the attention of Guy Fieri, who recently featured Slow Bone on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Victor Hugo, Bucket & Rope
Congenial and well-credited chef originally from California had experience both in front of the house and back at serious establishments like Al Biernat's and Bistro 31 before opening his beloved eponymous restaurant in Oak Cliff in 2014. It closed during the pandemic, but now he's back, partnered with Mike Ruibal of Ruibal's Plants in this love letter to the area surrounding Dallas Farmers Market, serving honest, well made food at a reasonable price in a famously historic building at 600 S. Harwood St. that was previously home to Green Door Public House.

Habip Kargin, Selda
Kargin is a serial restaurateur, starting in his native Turkey, then in Dallas where he founded Pera, a Turkish-Mediterranean concept, in 2012. His latest is Selda, which he debuted in 2020, and which has already yielded at least three spinoffs, often in partnerships with employees or other natives of Turkey. The portfolio currently includes Mayor's House by Selda, which opened in 2023 in Oak Cliff (and which is also nominated for a Tastemaker Award for Best Neighborhood Restaurant), well as San Antonio, plus at least one more, opening in Frisco in late May.

Dennis Kelly & Melody Bishop, Written By the Seasons
Dallas lucked out when this chef duo decided to relocate here from California a decade ago, bringing with them their West Coast-style farm-to-table sensibility and championing of clean and bright flavors done well. They previously worked at Lark on the Park and Knox Bistro before finding like-minded spirits in the ownership team at Written By the Seasons, the stunning seasonal restaurant with two locations: the original in Bishop Arts and a spinoff that opened at The Quad in January 2025.

Minji Kim, JOA Grill
Kim is originally from Seoul, South Korea, where she owned a renowned restaurant called Min's Kitchen. A Michelin Plate recipient from 2017 to 2019, she relocated to Dallas in 2022 to help Smoothie King owner Wan Kim open his grandly mounted Nuri Steakhouse, which debuted in 2024.

Masayuki Otaka, Mabo
Born in Tokyo, Masayuki Otaka is a modest and industrious chef who ran Teppo, the Japanese restaurant on Greenville Avenue, for 27 years, building an intensely loyal following among locals in-the-know as well as visitors from Japan until it closed in 2022. Now he's doing the same thing in a new location: Mabo, the restaurant he opened in Preston Center in 2024 specializing in skewers cooked over a charcoal-grill. In quick time, he has earned national acclaim, including making the list of James Beard Awards finalists, as well as being the only Dallas restaurant to make Esquire magazine's 2024 list of the Best New Restaurants in America.