Earl Reynolds is a Beard finalist again

Earl Reynolds, the executive chef at Herb & Omni in Whitefish, has been named a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef for the second time. (kpax.com) KPAX reported the finalist announcement on April 13, 2026, and said Reynolds was at home with his wife and young daughter when the news came in. Reynolds told the station his family “started jumping around in the kitchen” after learning he had made the finalist list. (kpax.com) Reynolds previously reached the same finalist stage in 2023, when he was executive chef at Stone Hill Kitchen and Bar in Bigfork. He is now leading the kitchen at Herb & Omni on Central Avenue in downtown Whitefish. (kpax.com) The James Beard Foundation announced its 2025 Restaurant and Chef Award nominees on April 2, 2025, and said winners would be revealed on June 16, 2025, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The foundation describes the awards as national honors for restaurant and chef achievement. (jamesbeard.org) For Montana, Reynolds’ repeat appearance puts a Whitefish chef back on a national awards list two years after his 2023 finalist run. It also extends the visibility of northwest Montana restaurants beyond the state at a time when Beard recognition remains one of the industry’s most watched benchmarks. (kpax.com) (jamesbeard.org) At Herb & Omni, Reynolds told KPAX he cooks what he calls New American food and works with local farmers and ranchers to feature ingredients from northwest Montana. He said he wants to “represent this part of Montana through the food.” (kpax.com) Reynolds had already drawn national television attention in July 2024, when KPAX reported that he beat Bobby Flay on the Food Network program “Beat Bobby Flay.” In that story, Reynolds said he had joined Herb & Omni the previous December after working in restaurants along the West Coast. (kpax.com) Herb & Omni executive sous chef Shane Vanveldhuizen told KPAX that Reynolds is “serious in all the right ways and whimsical at the right times,” while Reynolds said the Beard recognition belongs to the whole team. For Whitefish, the latest finalist nod keeps one hometown chef in the national conversation again. (kpax.com)