Rice Again Named James Beard Award Semifinalist

The James Beard Foundation has announced the restaurant and chef semifinalists for the 2025 James Beard Awards, and Arwen Rice of Red or White in Mobile has again been named a semifinalist in the “Best Chef: South” category, AL.com is among outlets to report. She joins two other semifinalists from Alabama. Most categories include 20 semifinalists, and the field will be narrowed to five finalists on April 2. The overall winners will be announced at the 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony, which will be held on June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Named for the celebrated chef, cookbook author and television personality whom The New York Times called “the dean of American cookery,” the James Beard Awards were first presented in 1991 and have become known as “the Oscars of the food world.”