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San Antonio has snagged two James Beard Awards semifinalist nominations: Steve McHugh, chef/owner of Cured restaurant for Best Chef-Southwest and The Esquire Tavern for Outstanding Bar Program.

This is a second nomination for both McHugh and The Esquire.

Last year, McHugh was a finalist but didn't take the top honor in the ceremony that's commonly called the Oscars of the food world.

And The Esquire was nominated in 2012, the first year the Beard Foundation began recognizing bars.

RELATED: Photos: Esquire celebrates epic birthday with burlesque dancers, wild guests

"The nomination in itself is an honor. We're simply thrilled to be nominated," said Chris Hill, owner of The Esquire, who found out about the nomination from an Express-News phone call. "To be nominated twice is sweeter."

Texas chefs make up the majority of the 20 semifinalist chefs in the Best Chef-Southwest and include: Omar Flores of Casa Rubia in Dallas, Bryce Gilmore of Barley Swine in Austin, Manabu Horiuchi of Kata Robata in Houston, Anita Jaisinghani of Pondicheri in Houston, Hugo Ortega of Hugo's in Houston, Teiichi Sakurai of Tei-An Soba House in Dallas, Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan of The Pass in Houston, John Tesar of Knife in Dallas, David Uygur of Lucia in Dallas and Jianyun Ye of Mala Sichuan Bistro in Houston.

RELATED: Our review of Cured

Meanwhile, The Esquire is one of 2 Outstanding Bar Program semifinalists from Texas, along with Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston.

The foundation will announce finalists on March 15 and this year's awards are taking place May 1 in Chicago.

We'll update this story with comments from McHugh when we get them.

etijerina@express-news.net
Twitter: @etij 

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