(Bloomberg) --
The best place to dine in the US right now is Friday Saturday Sunday in Philadelphia, a city that is emerging as the culinary hotbed of America.
The spot serving an eight-course tasting menu of American fare was named Outstanding Restaurant Monday night at the James Beard Awards in Chicago. Owned by hushand-and-wife team Chad and Hanna Williams, the restaurant’s current menu includes sweetbreads with mushrooms and plantains as well as grilled quail and a New York strip steak.
“We started as a small neighborhood restaurant and had bigger ambitions,” said Chad Williams. “Luckily the neighborhood grew with us and supported us."
Other big winners included Rob Rubba of Oyster Oyster in Washington, D.C., who was named Outstanding Chef, and Damarr Brown, the Emerging Chef winner from Virtue in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Philadelphia walked away with three awards.
While anti-woke stances are becoming more prominent, the restaurant awards now are unabashedly inclusive. Sherry Pocknett, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, was named Best Chef in the Northeast for Sly Fox Den Too in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Tim Flores and Genie Kwon won top chefs’ honors for the Midwest for their Filipino restaurant Kasama in Chicago.
“I never thought I’d be cooking Filipino food until we opened Kasama,’’ Flores said as he accepted the award with Kwon. “To be recognized for cooking my mom’s food is insane.’’
The range of dining spots and cities that made it to the finalist round continued to expand. Last year, Chai Pani, a casual Indian street food spot in Asheville, North Carolina, won top restaurant honors, and the best new dining spot was Owami, an indigenous American eatery in Minneapolis. This year, Cincinnati had three places that were finalist contenders; the traditional dining and drinking stronghold San Francisco had only two.
The run-up to the awards was not without drama. In mid-May, chef Timothy Hontzas of Johnny's Restaurant in Homewood, Alabama, was disqualified from consideration as Best Chef in the South after he violated the Beard Foundation’s code of ethics by allegedly yelling at an employee and guests.
Later in the month, Samantha Fore, chef at Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites in Lexington, Kentucky, told the New York Times she was being investigated over an alleged anonymous complaint of bullying. In addition, a member of Beard’s national chef and restaurant committee resigned over his concerns about the foundation’s lack of transparency.
This is the second year the awards have taken place following a major policies audit within the foundation. Among other things, the judging process has been updated to address the lack of diversity in the foundation’s 30-plus years of existence following the absence of any Black winners in 2020 and the subsequent cancellation of awards for two years. It also established the code of ethics.
The awards, which have been granted since 1991, have become one of the defining markers of the industry in the US. Restaurants and chefs invariably define themselves as “James Beard winners” and even “James Beard semi-finalists” if they earn that distinction.
Here is the full list of winning restaurants and chefs:
Outstanding RestaurantFriday Saturday Sunday, PhiladelphiaOutstanding ChefRob Rubba, Oyster Oyster, WashingtonBest New Restaurant Kann, Portland, OregonOutstanding Restaurateur Ellen Yin, High Street Hospitality Group (Fork, a.kitchen + bar, High Street and others), PhiladelphiaEmerging Chef Damarr Brown, Virtue, ChicagoOutstanding Bakery Yoli Tortilleria, Kansas City, MissouriOutstanding Pastry Chef or Baker Margarita Manzke, République, Los AngelesOutstanding HospitalityThe Quarry, Monson, MaineOutstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program OTOTO, Los AngelesOutstanding Bar Bar Leather Apron, HonoluluBest Chefs
CaliforniaJustin Pichetrungsi, Anajak Thai, Sherman Oaks, CaliforniaGreat Lakes Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, Kasama, ChicagoMid-AtlanticChutatip “Nok” Suntaranon, Kalaya, PhiladelphiaMidwest Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger, Fairchild, Madison, WisconsinMountainKris Komori, KIN, Boise, IdahoNew York State Junghyun Park, Atomix, New YorkNortheastSherry Pocknett, Sly Fox Den Too, Charlestown, Rhode IslandNorthwest and Pacific Vince Nguyen, Berlu, Portland, OregonSoutheast Terry Koval, The Deer and the Dove, Decatur, GerogiaSouthNatalia Vallejo, Cocina al Fondo, San JuanSouthwestAndrew Black, Grey Sweater, Oklahoma CityTexas Benchawan Jabthong Painter, Street to Kitchen, Houston
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