Iowa City’s DeLuxe Cakes and Pastries is now a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard Award in the outstanding bakery category, a recognition often coined the “Oscars of food.” DeLuxe has a chance to be named among the top five in March. Powers is the first person in Iowa City to be a semifinalist for the James Beard Award. RELATED: How one Iowa City bakery is fighting food insecurityBut Powers’ path to this moment didn’t start in a kitchen. Powers said she learned everything at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, serving high tea pastries, restaurant dessert pastries, breakfast pastries, and wedding cakes. Iowa City resident and DeLuxe customer Rachel Monahan said she wasn’t surprised DeLuxe became a semifinalist.