Texas has a new James Beard award-winner, but he doesn't cook in Houston.

Paul Qui won the Best Chef Southwest category over Houston's Hugo Ortega as well as fellow nominees Bruce Auden of San Antonio's Biga on the Banks, Arizona's Kevin Binkley, Bruce Davaillon of Dallas' Rosewood Mansion at Turtle Creek and Jennifer Jasinski of Denver's Rioja.

Announced in a prime time gala at New York's Lincoln Center Monday night, it's the second year in a row that an Austin chef and a chef from the Uchi/Uchiko family has won, with Tyson Cole sharing the category with Saipin Chutima of Las Vegas' Lotus of Siam in 2011. Ortega didn't take home the big prize, but he still received plenty of love.

"So proud of Chef Hugo Ortega . . . on #jbfa nomination. Amazing chef who inspires. You're our winner!" tweeted Ortega's publicist Paula Murphy.

The last Houston restaurant chef to win a James Beard Award was Robert Del Grande in 1992, also for Best Chef Southwest. Irma Galvan of Irma's won an "America's Classic" award in 2008. Monica Pope and Bryan Caswell are also former Best Chef Southwest nominees.

Qui also has some proud Houston ties. He lists H-Town as one of his hometowns and went to high school in the area before going to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin.

Houston chefs earned five semifinalist slots this year, from Best New Restaurant for Pondicheri to a Best Chef Southwest nod for Kata Robata's Manabu "Hori" Horiuchi and a mention for Grant Gordon as a Rising Star Chef. But only one chef earned a prestigious James Beard nomination — Hugo Ortega of Hugo's. It's the apex (so far) of a charmed career for Ortega, from busboy to renowned chef at Hugo's and Backstreet Cafe and Houston's ambassador of interior Mexican cuisine.

Congratulations to Ortega and to Paul Qui as well!

It's been quite a year already for Qui, who won Bravo's Top Chef: Texas this winter.