Some significant changes were just announced in the regional Best Chef categories for the 2013 James Beard Awards – now chefs in Puerto Rico will be able to vie for the “Best Chef South” award along with chefs from Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana—Kelly Dobkin reports for Zagat.com. Additionally the “Best Chef Pacific” category will change to “Best Chef West” and will include California, Hawaii and Nevada, the latter of which was previously a part of the “Best Chef Southwest” region. The change was made to accomodate the growing population of the Southwest region. Stay tuned for more JBA updates right here.

For the original report go to http://blog.zagat.com/2012/06/james-beard-foundation-announces-puerto.html