James Beard Foundation shows good taste with five Colorado nominees

Five Colorado entries for the 2015 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards have been named semifinalists in the coveted contest. They are:

• Outstanding Pastry Chef - Yasmin Lozada-Hissom. She has been nominated several times but never won. The Beard Foundation seems to think she is still at Spuntino, but she and her husband, chef John Broening, sold it last year. According to the blog Culinary Colorado, she is developing products for Udi’s Granola.

• Best Chef: Southwest - Alex Seidel, Fruition and Mercantile Dining & Provision; Dana Rodriguez, Work & Class and Steven Redzikowski of Oak at Fourteenth and Acorn. Rodriguez was previously executive chef at Bistro Vendome, where she was the culinary protégé of James Beard winner Jennifer Jasinski.

• Outstanding Restaurant – Frasca Food and Wine.

The James Beard Foundation will announce the final Restaurant and Chef Award nominees, as well as the nominations for the Book, Journalism, Broadcast Media and Restaurant Design Awards, at the James Beard House in New York City on March 24.

The 2015 James Beard Awards gala will be held at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on May 4. The Foundation’s Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards Dinner will take place at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City on Friday, April 24.

See all of the 2015 nominees at www.jamesbeard.org/blog/2015-restaurant-and-chef-award-semifinalists.