Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu Bring Houston a James Beard Win

The James Beard Awards are like the Oscars for restaurants and chefs. And just like watching the Oscars, you get to see the shock and excitement when a winner is announced and they deliver one of those heartfelt acceptance speeches.

For Chef Henry Lu, it was “an out-of-body experience” when he and Chef Evelyn Garcia won the “Best Chef: Texas” category for their Heights restaurant JŪN last month.

Opened in 2023, the restaurant was a James Beard finalist just a year later for “Best New Restaurant” for its inventive nods to Garcia’s Salvadoran and Mexican heritage and Lu’s Southeast Asian culinary roots.

This time, though, the duo was gunning for a win, arriving in Chicago and getting red-carpet ready for the 2026 awards ceremony.

“We were manifesting so hard before the show,” Lu says. “We were like, ‘We’re gonna win.’ We had put so much work into it. Once we were in the theater, I think that’s when it really hit me: this is real.”

Reality quickly became a blur once their category was announced. In the recording of the ceremony (which you can watch on the James Beard website), it seems like every emotion washes across Lu’s face as their names are read: shock, confusion, overwhelmed and on the verge of tears.

“I had a whole speech planned out,” Lu recalls. But he was at a loss for words once on stage.

Garcia, for her part, talked passionately about Houston, about telling the story of two first-generation chefs through food. Then she leaned over to Lu, and through tears, she said, “And honestly, I want to thank you, Henry, for believing in me and us and knowing that we can do this.”

Lu was still processing the experience and Garcia’s words when he talked to OutSmart a week later.

“We’ve known each other for over 15 years now, and our relationship as friends, she’s my ride or die,” Lu says. “I’m only able to do this because of her.”

Indeed, it was Garcia who brought Lu to Houston in the first place. They met in New York in the 2010s, working in restaurant kitchens and hospitality groups. Lu had grown up in the Bronx and Garcia had relocated from Houston. When the pandemic hit, Garcia returned home and was dreaming up her own restaurant concept. Lu wasn’t sure what his next step might be, but he knew he wanted to be his own boss.

Garcia encouraged him to visit her in Houston and scope out a project together. As a gay Asian man from New York, he was somewhat hesitant about relocating to Texas.

“But I came down and saw this beautiful shift Houston was going through with the food and culture and people,” Lu says. “I wanted to be part of that dialogue and help shape it. Here, we could make a stand and actually open up a place that is for everyone.”

When JŪN launched in 2023, it immediately became a hit for its inventive and flavorful dishes with a distinct throughline of their respective roots. A mainstay charred carrot dish features cheese from a farm owned by Garcia’s aunt in El Salvador. A Gulf shrimp aguachile gets an added punch from Asian fish sauce and thinly sliced taro.

Garcia says their partnership is “effortless” because they genuinely share the same goals for the restaurant and their team. “Our friendship has always been based on mutual respect and real love and passion for what we do,” she says. “I always say Henry is the best chef I know, and his opinion has always really mattered to me.”

And while their successful restaurant is still relatively young, Lu and Garcia are already focusing their mission on building community. Besides supporting local organizations like Montrose Grace Place and No Kid Hungry Houston, they also want to give new and aspiring chefs a hand.

In 2025, they launched Third Place, a pop-up concept within the 20th Street restaurant that showcases artists and creatives through workshops as well as guest menus from up-and-coming local chefs.

While JŪN is only open for dinner, the lunchtime pop-up has featured the food stand Subo with its Filipino breakfast sandwiches, That One Noodle Shop with bowls of shoyu ramen, and plenty of other promising food masterminds.

Lu says at first, they were encouraging JŪN’s kitchen staff and friends in the restaurant industry to host lunches. “Now, it’s gotten bigger than we ever imagined,” he says. “People are reaching out to us to participate. Talk about how strong the Houston community is—we’re seeing that in practice at Third Place. We see the masses of people who come out and support. Houston has really opened their arms to it.”

Lu sees the recent accolades and success as another chapter in the novel they are writing about JŪN.

“The first year, we explored the ideas of our upbringing and our roots and what really hit home for us,” he says. “The second and third years were about how Texas has played a role in this new life we have. And now we’re seeing this melting pot happening here with second and third generations. That is Texas culture. That is American culture, and that is the story that JŪN is evolving into where we share those stories—where it’s not so much about us anymore.”

Back at the James Beard awards ceremony in June, despite all the overwhelming emotions, Lu did, in fact, get a moment to gather his thoughts on stage.

“We want to thank our immigrant parents that lived the American dream and really put us where we are today,” he says. “They invested so much in us and what we believed in, and everything we are today is because of them.”

Even in the moments where it is about them, like on a national stage being recognized as the best in Texas, Lu still credits who came before with an eye on whose story they can help tell next.

Keep up with Chef Henry Lu on Instagram chefchefhenrylu.

At the beginning of the year, Chef Henry Lu and Chef Evelyn Garcia launched their own podcast, “Loaded Potatoes,” leveraging their respective Top Chef stints and talking all things food with special guests. “It’s really unfiltered, unedited, and that’s the way we talk to each other normally,” Lu says. “We call it our therapy session.”