A Night of Glitz and Resistance at the James Beard Foundation's 35th Restaurant and Chef Awards
The evening kicked off with an energetic red carpet, followed by a filled ballroom at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Chefs and television personalities Andrew Zimmern and Nyesha Arrington were gregarious hosts, channeling joyous energy in a room filled with industry veterans and newcomers on edge due to recent economic uncertainty and ICE raids devastating workforces.
There were some truly exciting wins, including San Juan, Puerto Rico's Identidad Cocktail Bar taking home the award for Best New Bar (the first award of its kind in the ceremony's history), Austin's Birdie's recognition for a truly stellar wine program, and Salvador Alamilla of Idaho's Amano taking home Best Chef: Mountain, after his second nomination. From intricate garb to rousing speeches, here are some of the evening's takeaways.
Immigrant-owned restaurants and bars, especially those offering fare from Asian and Latin American cuisines, won big this year, and award recipients were refreshingly unapologetic about celebrating their identity. Numerous winners, including Emerging Chef winner Phila Lorn of Mawn in Philadelphia and Julia Momose of Outstanding Bar winner Kumiko, pointed to their heritage as essential to the food and beverages that audiences so love. Sky Haneul Kim of Gift Horse in Providence, Rhode Island, thanked her parents in Korean, and Jungsik Yim of Jungsik in New York accepted his Outstanding Chef award using a Korean translator — delivering the acceptance speech their way.
After years of public frustration, the James Beard Awards added several new categories to recognize the craft of beverages: Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service, and Best New Bar. This allowed for some thrilling wins: Ignacio Jimenez was awarded Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service for Superbueno, New York, and Identidad Cocktail Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, known for its Caribbean and Latin American influence cocktails, was named Best New Bar. Arjav Ezekiel of Birdie's won the inaugural award for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service — having recently visited Birdie's, it appears strong wine and cocktail programs were a driving force for this year's judges. The new categories are inclusive of all beverages, such as beer, N/A cocktails, and coffee, so it'll be interesting to see if those are represented more heavily in future years.
The last few James Beard ceremonies haven't been big wins for the city of New York, with spotty results ever since the ceremony's post-pandemic return in 2022; last year, the city was shut out of every national category entirely. This year was different, and NYC chefs, bartenders, and restaurateurs won in major categories across the board. Among the evening's notable wins were Vijay Kumar of New York's Semma, who took home the award for Best Chef: New York State; Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr of Frenchette, Le Rock, Le Veau d'Or won for Outstanding Restaurateur; Yim, whose restaurant Jungsik is in Lower Manhattan; and Atomix, which won for Outstanding Hospitality.
Cat Cox of Country Bird Bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma took home a particularly thrilling win for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker: It's terrific to see a baker celebrated in the category, and a woman who centers Heartland baked goods, no less. Unfortunately, Cox was one of just over a handful of women who won awards this year. James Beard has done laudable work to diversify its judgment process and awards body, and women are recognized and celebrated throughout the organization. This year's group of winners, however, did lean more male, and I look forward to more women taking home major wins in the future.
The rallying cry of the evening — with regional Best Chef winners Timothy Wastell (Northwest & Pacific), Sky Hanuel Kim (Northeast), and a friend accepting on behalf of Noah Sandoval (Midwest) — all saying 'fuck ICE' as they departed the stage.
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