These Miami area chefs and restaurants might be among the best in the U.S. See the list

Several Miami-Dade restaurants and chefs have been nominated for one of the highest awards in the food industry.

The James Beard Foundation has announced its 2024 list of semifinalists for the annual Restaurant and Chef Awards that celebrate the best of the best. The awards, which were created in 1990, recognize exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media, and broader food system, as well as a demonstrated commitment to racial and gender equity, community, sustainability, and a culture where all can thrive.

Tristen Epps, chef at Ocean Social at the Eden Roc Miami Beach hotel, was nominated in the Best Chef: South category and said that the honor was important to him and his staff.

“It’s validation — that’s the really significant part,” he said. “We push to do a lot of different things that are not necessarily conventional here. Afro-Caribbean food isn’t always the most popular in elevated cuisine. People come to a hotel and expect hotel food, and we’re trying to push in a different direction and give them a different experience. . . . We’re being appreciated and looked at. It’s really great.”

Here are the South Florida nominees:

Outstanding Bakery

Zak the Baker, Miami

Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker

Jesus Brazon and Manuel Brazon, Caracas Bakery, Doral and Miami

Outstanding Wine or Other Beverages Program

Macchialina, Miami Beach

Best Chef: South

Valerie Chang, Maty’s, Miami

Tristen Epps, Ocean Social, Miami

Clay Conley, Buccan, Palm Beach

For the 2024 awards, Miami was shut out of nominations in the prestigious Outstanding Chef, Emerging Chef, Outstanding Restaurant and Best New Restaurant categories. In 2023, the beloved kosher bakery Zak the Baker was one of the final five nominees for Outstanding Bakery but lost to Yoli Tortilleria in Kansas City, MO.

Chang’s Maty’s has received much attention since it opened in 2023. The upscale Peruvian restaurant in Midtown was named one of Bon Appétit’s best new restaurants of 2023, the only spot on the list from Florida, and, along with Niven Patel and Mohammed Alkassar’s Italian restaurant Erba in Coral Gables, was named one of Esquire’s best new restaurants of 2023.

The New York Times also named Maty’s on its 2023 Restaurant List (along with Kendall barbecue joint Smoke and Dough).

Chang, Epps and Chef Clay Conley of Palm Beach’s Buccan restaurant will participate in the 2024 South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

This year’s James Beard Awards nominees will be announced on April 3, and winners will be announced at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 1:26 PM.