An eclectic mix of restaurants and chefs are vying for the coveted James Beard Awards
CHICAGO– From photo shops in Seattle to an East African eatery in Detroit, an eclectic mix of restaurants and chefs are fighting for the coveted James Beard Awards, which will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on Monday.
More than 100 restaurants are finalists in 22 categories for the culinary world’s equivalent of the Oscars. Just being a finalist can bring widespread recognition and boost your sales. The most anticipated categories include awards for excellent restaurateur, chef and restaurant.
“People are working hard to make things happen and they know this can be a game-changer,” said Tanya Holland, chair of the awards committee.
Restaurants sign up for the prices. Judges, who usually remain anonymous, try the kitchen before voting. Nominees are judged on the food and a code of ethics, including the way employees are treated.
Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, who fled Burundi about a decade ago and now own Baobab Fare in Detroit, are among the five finalists in the outstanding restaurateur category. The couple faced a difficult road when refugees opened a business in the US
Their restaurant’s menu features kuku, fried chicken in a spicy mustard-onion sauce served with fried plantains, stewed yellow beans and coconut rice. Mamba said the nomination is already a victory for them because they can inspire others.
“We are so happy about this,” said Mamba. “Hey, if Mamba and Nadia made it, you can too.”
A Seattle family that brought the first pho shop to town in the 1980s is also a finalist for outstanding restaurateur with a trio of pho restaurants and a chicken and rice shop called The Boat.
Yenvy Pham, whose parents opened their first restaurant after emigrating from Vietnam, calls a bowl of their pho, with its hearty bone broth and anise and clove flavors, “the foundation” of their cooking. They make the soup fresh every day for 24 hours.
“We just really love what we do,” she says.
The other restaurateur finalists are Chris Viaud with three restaurants in New Hampshire, Hollis Wells Silverman with the Eastern Point Collective which runs several restaurants in Washington, DC, and Erika and Kelly Whitaker for restaurants in Boulder, Colorado.
The James Beard Foundation has been giving out awards since 1991, except in 2020 and 2021, when the organization eliminated them as the restaurant industry reeled from the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation also faced criticism over a lack of racial diversity and accusations about the behavior of some nominees. Foundation officials vowed to improve ethical standards and “be more reflective of the industry.”
Some of this year’s finalists are already receiving praise, including Michael Rafidi, whose Washington, DC restaurant Albi was awarded a coveted Michelin star in 2022. He is one of the five finalists for outstanding chef.
Albi, which is Arabic for “my heart,” pays tribute to Rafidi’s Palestinian roots by using Old World food preparation techniques. Everything is cooked over charcoal, including grape leaves stuffed with lamb and sfeeha, a meat pie.
“The idea of presenting Palestinian cuisine on a different level and in a different light is something that excites me,” he said.
Other outstanding chef finalists include David Uygur for Lucia in Dallas, Sarah Minnick for Lovely’s Fifty Fifty in Portland, Oregon, Dean Neff of Seabird in Wilmington, North Carolina and Renee Touponce for The Port of Call in Mystic, Connecticut.