Chef Cara Stadler, owner of Tao Yuan restaurant on Pleasant Street and Bao Bao in Portland, has made the semifinal round of nominations for a James Beard Rising Star Award.
This will be Stadler’s third nomination for the prestigious award. In 2014, Stadler was named Food and Wine’s Best New Chef and recently was listed among Conde Nast’s 10 Young Chefs to Watch.
“If there’s anything you want, the two biggest accolades are Food and Wine Best New Chef and a James Beard. I didn’t expect the Food and Wine thing to happen so quickly. It was really so amazing,” Stadler said in a recent Times Record interview.
This year, more than 20,000 entries were received by the James Beard Foundation, covering 21 chef and restaurant categories. Stadler’s name will now go before a panel of culinary expert judges who will whittle the semifinalists down to five before deliberating over who the winner should be.
The final results will be announced at the foundation’s awards banquet in May.
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