Jun. 10—Zacatlán chef Eduardo Rodriguez won’t be coming home with a James Beard award; nor will The Compound, which was up for Outstanding Restaurant.

Rodriguez, a Santa Fe chef, was beat out for Best Chef Southwest by Rene Andrade, who heads the restaurant Bacanora in Phoenix. Steve Riley of Mesa Provisions in Albuquerque was also a finalist for the coveted award.

Mark Kiffin’s Compound, in a field of restaurant finalists spread across Texas, Oregon and Mississippi, lost out to Langbaan in Portland, Ore.

The prestigious James Beard Awards were hosted Monday evening at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The event was streamed live on eater.com, a digital news site focused on food and dining.

Were Rodriguez to win, he would have joined a list of James Beard Best Chef winners from New Mexico that include Kiffin, Sazón’s Fernando Olea and Mark Miller of Coyote Cafe. Olea won the award most recently in 2022, with Kiffin winning in 2005 and Miller in 1996.

A native of Zacatecas, Mexico, Rodriguez creates “south Mexico” dishes, with influences from his travels to other Mexican states such as Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Chiapas, Puebla and Oaxaca. Zacatlán was named a semifinalist in 2022 for Best New Restaurant.

The Compound, which Kiffin has helmed for more than two decades, recently achieved the AAA Four Diamond rating.

Elsewhere, The Burque Bakehouse in Albuquerque, a finalist in the Outstanding Bakery category, fell short of the James Beard Award, losing to ZU Bakery in Portland, Maine.