{"id":534036,"date":"2026-01-22T07:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/534036\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:17:18","slug":"james-beard-awards-set-sights-on-two-sd-county-chefs-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/534036\/","title":{"rendered":"James Beard Awards set sights on two SD County chefs, bar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Animae-Mothers-Day-Brunch-James-Tran50-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Animae-Mothers-Day-Brunch-James-Tran50.jpg\" alt=\"Dishes arrayed on a table.\" class=\"wp-image-184913\"  \/><\/a>A brunch spread from Animae in 2022. (File photo courtesy of the resturant)<\/p>\n<p>Two San Diego County chefs and a Convoy Street cocktail bar are among the coveted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamesbeard.org\/awards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Beard Foundation Award<\/a> semifinalists announced Wednesday, marking another strong showing for the region on the national culinary stage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofsandiego.com\/arts\/2025\/04\/02\/tara-monsod-of-animae-among-james-beard-nominees-for-top-chef-in-california\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tara Monsod<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animaesd.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Animae<\/a> in downtown San Diego and Eric Bost, executive chef of Michelin-starred <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restaurantlilo.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lilo<\/a> in Carlsbad, were named semifinalists for the title of Best Chef: California. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.52remedies.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Realm of the 52 Remedies<\/a>, an Asian-influenced speakeasy on Convoy Street, earned a semifinalist nod in the national Outstanding Bar category.<\/p>\n<p>Monsod, executive chef of Puffer Malarkey Collective\u2019s Asian-inspired fine-dining restaurant Animae at 969 Pacific Highway, has become a familiar name in the Beard Awards conversation. For the past two years, she advanced to the final round \u2014 an unprecedented achievement for San Diego County. She remains the only local chef to have reached the finals in the competition\u2019s history. Monsod also oversees Animae\u2019s sister restaurant, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lecoq.com\/our-story\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Le Coq<\/a>, a French-Asian concept in La Jolla.<\/p>\n<p>Bost was recognized for his work at Lilo, the 22-seat fine-dining restaurant in Carlsbad that earned a Michelin star just two months after opening last spring. Since mid-2020, Bost has worked alongside restaurateur John Resnick to grow a now four-restaurant group that also includes Jeune et Jolie, Campfire and Wildland.<\/p>\n<p>Monsod and Bost are among 20 California chefs to advance to the semifinal round this year. <\/p>\n<p>Finalists will be announced later this spring, with winners revealed at the James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>See the complete list of semifinalists on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamesbeard.org\/stories\/james-beard-award-semifinalists-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">foundation\u2019s website<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brunch spread from Animae in 2022. (File photo courtesy of the resturant) Two San Diego County chefs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":534037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,236511,1582,276,8737,236512,236513,236514,236515,236516,236517,3549,7264,236518,236519,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-534036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-animae","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-carlsbad","tag-convoy","tag-eric-bost","tag-james-beard-foundation-award","tag-le-coq","tag-lilo","tag-realm-of-the-52-remedies","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-semifinalists","tag-tara-monsod","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115937532036901450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}