Misti Norris made a list that only twenty chefs in the country land on this year, and anyone who’s eaten her food lately isn’t surprised.
The James Beard Foundation named Norris to its 2026-2027 TasteTwenty class, an annual cohort representing twenty markets nationwide through the foundation’s Taste America series. There’s no trophy attached to it. It’s the foundation flagging chefs it thinks the rest of the country should be paying attention to, and Norris has spent years building the resume to back that up: five James Beard nominations going back to her run at Petra and the Beast, and a 2026 semifinalist nod for Best New Restaurant at Far Out, the Quonset hut spot near Fair Park where she served as culinary director.
Norris has since moved on from Far Out. She’s now behind Rainbowcat, which Texas Monthly named one of the ten best new restaurants in the state this year, praising her comfort-food riffs like a porchetta McMuffin and a dessert built around Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That’s the kitchen she’s cooking out of now, and the one this recognition follows her into.
The tour itself is already underway. All twenty TasteTwenty chefs gathered in New Orleans on September 16 for a walk-around tasting that kicked off the series, and the schedule fans out city by city from there through early 2027. Houston’s Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu of JŪN, also part of this year’s class, host their event in October. Norris hosts Dallas’s official Taste America dinner in March 2027.
Full event details haven’t been released. What’s confirmed, straight from the James Beard Foundation and corroborated by regional coverage of the announcement, is the date and the chef. Dallas gets its turn on a national stage next spring, and Norris is the one carrying it.
