Mashama Bailey of the Gray of Savannah, Ga., Was named Outstanding Chef, and Owamni by Minneapolis Sioux Chef, owned by Chef Sean Sherman and Dana Thompson, was named Best New Restaurant at the James Beard Foundation Awards Monday at the night.
The ceremony, hosted by Kwame Onwuachi, the foundation’s 2019 rising star chef, was held at the Lyric Opera in Chicago in front of some 1,800 attendees and celebrated perhaps the most diverse group of nominees and winners to date.
“Today, a black girl or a little black boy can be seen as a future outstanding chef,” Ms. Bailey, who won Best Chef: Southeast in 2019, when he accepted his award on Monday. “They can see themselves in a space they’ve never seen before, and do what they didn’t think possible. And until a few minutes ago, it was me. “
Awards have been on hold for the past two years amid concerns over the diversity of finalists, allegations against nominees and the effects of the pandemic on the hospitality business. After the turmoil of 2020 and 2021, the foundation said it had taken steps to review the nomination and court systems to make them more transparent.
Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina, was named exceptional restaurant. Chris Bianco of Tratto, Pane Bianco and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix was named Outstanding Restorer.
The Emerging Chef Award went to Edgar Rico of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Tex.
There are 12 regional awards for best chefs: Chintan Pandya of Dhamaka and Unapologetic Foods won Best Chef: New York State. Mandon Jiu’s Brandon Jew in San Francisco won Best Chef: California.
Warda Bouguettaya of Warda Pâtisserie in Detroit was named an excellent pastry chef, while Don Guerra of Barrio Bread in Tucson, Arizona, received the Outstanding Baker Award.
The Four Horsemen in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was cited for its exceptional wine program and Julep in Houston for its exceptional bar program. Cure in Asheville, North Carolina, received the Outstanding Hospitality Award.
For the past two years, the awards have been plagued by controversy and internal strife. In August 2020, the foundation made the unusual decision not to nominate any James Beard winners for that year, other than some that had already been announced. It was later reported that some of the appointed chefs had faced allegations of misconduct in the workplace, although the exact nature of these allegations was not made public.
Foundation staff, who are separate from the nomination and voting committees, also expressed concern that no blacks would have won in any of the 23 award categories. “It got the message that they knew who the winners were and that the winners didn’t look like they wanted them to look like,” a committee member told The New York Times in 2020.
The 20-member restaurant awards committee pushed the foundation to acknowledge that a list of winners had in fact been reached, which Clare Reichenbach, the executive director of the James Beard Foundation, denied. “There was no final vote on the winners,” he said. The foundation also announced at the time that no awards would be presented in 2021, mainly due to the effect of the pandemic on the catering industry.
In 2021, the foundation also added a requirement that, in addition to culinary excellence, winners must demonstrate a “commitment to racial and gender equity, community, environmental sustainability, and a culture where everyone may prosper “.
At Monday’s awards, Ms. Reichenbach said: “Tonight, as we recognize outstanding food and beverage professionals, we also honor our entire industry and the incredible resilience, strength, talent and leadership that many have demonstrated over the past two years.”
Grace Young was named Humanitarian of the Year for her support of American Chinatowns. Martin Yan received the award for his career.
Winners of the American Classics Awards included Wo Hop, a restaurant owned by the Huang family in the Chinatown of Manhattan that opened in 1938, and Solly’s Grille in Milwaukee.
The restaurant and chef awards were established in 1990 and were first presented in New York in 1991. The ceremonies moved to Chicago in 2015.
The awards were presented to the media and cookbooks on Saturday, and the leadership awards, followed by social initiatives in the world of food, followed.
The full list of awards can be found at jamesbeard.org.