Three chefs, a restaurant, a bakery and a bar will represent Oregon at the 2025 James Beard Awards, the James Beard Foundation announced Wednesday. The nominees include: Portland’s Coquine in the Outstanding Restaurant category, Scotch Lodge in Outstanding Bar, Jinju for Outstanding Bakery and, in the regional Best Chef Northwest and Pacific category, Ryan Roadhouse of Portland’s Nodoguro, Joshua Dorcak of Ashland’s Mäs and Timothy Wastell of Amity’s Antica Terra. Racking up several finalist spots — including nominees in the highly competitive national categories — has become a regular occurrence for Oregon chefs and restaurants of late.
But the state has a chance to make history at the so-called Oscars of the food world this year. If Dorcak, Roadhouse or Wastell were to win the Northwest and Pacific chef category over fellow nominees Jay Blackinton of Houlme on Orcas Island, Washington and Beau Schooler of In Bocca Al Lupo in Juneau, Alaska, it would be the first time Oregon had won the regional chef award three times in a row (with Vince Nguyen of Portland’s Berlu winning in 2023 and Gregory Gourdet of Portland’s Kann in 2024).
