WILMINGTON — A revered foundation that crowns culinary excellence nationwide has included one local chef among its exhaustive semifinalist lists of categories in 2026.
Wednesday, James Beard Award Foundation announced Seabird chef and owner Dean Neff is part of its semifinals for Outstanding Chef. Neff is joined by 19 other nominees, from California to New York, Arizona to Texas to Tennessee, in the category.
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Neff owns seafood-forward restaurants in Wilmington, including Seabird and Zora’s, also a fish market, in Wilmington. His nomination is for Seabird, which opened in 2021, and highlights the bounty of living in southeastern North Carolina, with copious seafood items and locally farmed oysters at its center.
Neff wrote to the media he learned about his inclusion on the list in Seattle Wednesday. There for the Oyster Master Guild conference, he said he was “still processing the news.”
“I’m grateful for a lot of reasons,” Neff continued, “most of which are the hard work and collaborative spirit of our team, along with it being an opportunity to further our efforts of supporting our local food community while telling the stories of the hard-working people who bring us the ingredients that matter so much to us.”
Neff has been a contender of numerous awards from the James Beard Foundation for multiple years, first in 2019 for his work at Pinpoint. Neff arrived in Wilmington in 2015, having helped open the recently shuttered restaurant.
His next nomination came in 2023, when he made it to the semifinalist round, along with Chef Keith Rhodes, as Best Chef Southeast. Then the following year, Neff’s name topped out for Outstanding Chef and as the category was narrowed down, he remained in the top five.
However, Michael Rafidi of Albi in Washington, D.C., won in 2024, though Neff went to the ceremony in Chicago, calling it an “incredible honor” just to be included among admired and respected culinarians.
That year his Front Street restaurant Seabird also hosted a watch party of the awards, as a fundraiser for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. The event raised $15,000 — illuminating part of Neff’s goal to run operations that are sustainable, locally focused and greater for the community good.
“We started Seabird to be a community restaurant, and it came into being a community restaurant in ways that we couldn’t imagine,” Neff said at the time. “We felt hosting the fundraiser was the right thing to do, to help get rid of hunger in North Carolina and to honor the James Beard Foundation mission.”
The foundation’s goal is to celebrate and nurture food culture, including those who create it and leaders who make it diverse and sustainable for everyone. James Beard Foundation recognizes chefs in its “outstanding” category for keeping culinary standards at an optimal high and setting a “positive example for other food professionals while contributing positively to their broader community.”
Neff’s latest efforts at Zora’s Kitchen and Market — which he and his wife Lydia Clopton purchased in 2024 — also embraces this model. Earlier this month Neff started Zora’s Fish Bank, which gives free black sea bass, grown as part of UNCW’s Aquaculture Department, on a first-come, first-serve basis weekly to those who need it.
The James Beard awards began in 1990 and the first round includes foundation judges culling finalists after visiting the restaurants unannounced and dwindling down the list as informed by their dining experiences.
The finalized restaurant and chef nominees will be announced on Tuesday, March 31. Winners are honored at the annual James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 15, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Other North Carolina people and places recognized in the 2026 semifinalist round are:
- Outstanding Restaurateur: Meherwan Irani and Molly Irani, Chai Pani Restaurant Group (Chai Pani and Botiwalla), Asheville,
- Best New Restaurant: Peregrine, Raleigh
- Best Chef Southeast: Robin Anthony, Omakase by Prime Fish, Charlotte; Matt Dawes, The Bull and Beggar, Asheville; Steven Devereaux Greene, Herons at The Umstead, Cary; Cheetie Kumar, Ajja, Raleigh; Taylor Montgomery, Montgomery Sky Farm, Leicester.
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