A display case of baked goods at JinJu Patisserie in North Portland from July 23, 2022.
Another Believer / Wikimedia Commons
The most outstanding bakery in the United States is JinJu Patisserie in Portland. And the best chef in the Northwest and Pacific region is in a small town in the Willamette Valley.
That’s according to the 35th annual James Beard Awards, which happened Monday night.
Timothy Wastell was named Best Chef for the category covering Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington as chef of Antica Terra in Amity.
Wastell’s win means a three-peat victory in the category for Oregon chefs: Gregory Gourdet of kann in Portland won in 2024 and Vince Nguyen of Berlu in Portland won in 2023.
An undated shot of Antica Terra staff. James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific 2025 Timothy Wastell is seen far right.
Easton Richmond / Courtesy Antica Terra
JinJu Patisserie and Wastell were two of the six nominees from Oregon for this year’s awards.
Other nominees included Scotch Lodge in Portland for Outstanding Bar (which lost out to Kumuko in Chicago) and two other chefs in the category with Wastell: Joshua Dorcak of MÄS in Ashland and Ryan Roadhouse of Nodoguro in Portland.
The final Oregon nominee was up for one of the biggest awards of the night: Coquine in Portland for Outstanding Restaurant. That award instead went to Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado.
If Coquine had won, it would be a consecutive victory in the category for Portland — Thai restaurant Langbaan was named Outstanding Restaurant last year.
In this year’s James Beard Awards, Oregon had the fourth most nominees by state, after Texas (13), California (12) and New York (12).
Chef Timothy Wastell plates food at Antica Terra. Wastell won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific on Monday, June 16, 2025.
Making Dept. / Courtesy Antica Terra
Related: After decades of interest and multiple false starts, James Beard Public Market is finally a go
Three Oregonians also took home a top prize in the 2025 James Beard Foundation Media Awards. Portland resident Jim Meehan, along with co-authors Emma Janzen and Bart Sasso, won the Beverage and Recipes award for “The Bartender’s Pantry: A Beverage Handbook for the Universal Bar.”
In addition, Portland-based producers Katy and Ricardo Osuna were honored with an award for audio programming. The Osunas co-founded Copper & Heat production studio alongside California-based producer Rachel Palmer, and produced the winning podcast, “Loading Dock Talks with Chef Preeti Mistry.”
The James Beard Awards honor culinary excellence across the nation and are named after chef and cookbook author James Beard, who was born in Portland in 1903.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
