CHICAGO– An East African restaurant in Detroit, longtime family-owned photography shops in Seattle and a Palestinian chef using ancient cooking techniques in Washington, D.C., are among the dozens of finalists for this year’s prestigious James Beard Awards.
The culinary world’s equivalent of the Oscars will recognize restaurants and chefs in 22 categories at a ceremony scheduled for Monday in Chicago.
Nominees span a wide range of cooking and chef experience, a recent change after turbulent years of the pandemic era for the James Barba Foundation. The most anticipated categories include awards for excellent restaurateur, chef and restaurant.
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 path when the refugees opened a business in the U.S.
The restaurant’s menu features kuku, fried chicken in a spicy mustard and onion sauce, served with fried plantains, boiled yellow beans and coconut rice.
“We inspire a lot of refugees – refugees who come to this country with no hope and one day thinking they can win this kind of title,” Mamba said. “It’s really important to us because we want to show people that this world can be equal.”
The James Beard Foundation has given out awards since 1991, except in 2020 and 2021, when the organization dropped them because the restaurant industry was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and facing criticism over a lack of racial diversity and allegations about the behavior of some nominees. . Foundation officials promised to improve ethical standards and be more “reflective of the industry.”
Restaurants apply for awards. The judges, who mostly remain anonymous, sample the cuisine before casting their votes. Nominees are evaluated on their diet and also on a behavioral “code of ethics”, including the way employees are treated.
“We’re looking at the whole plate,” said Tanya Holland, chair of the awards committee.
For restaurants, just being a finalist can bring widespread recognition and boost business. Restaurant awards have become less common in recent years, giving even more weight to the James Beard awards, said Paul Freedman, a Yale University professor whose expertise includes food history.
“It really brings attention to restaurants that may not be as well-known outside of their region,” he said.
A Seattle family credited with bringing the first Pho shop to the city in the 1980s is also a finalist for outstanding restaurateur with a trio of Pho restaurants and their chicken and rice shop called The Boat.
Yenvy Pham, whose parents opened their first restaurant after immigrating from Vietnam, considers a bowl of her pho, with its meaty bone broth and aromas of fennel and clove, a “sure thing.” They make the soup fresh every day for 24 hours.
“It’s wild,” she said. “It’s a great honor.”
The other finalist restaurateurs are Chris Viaud with three restaurants in New Hampshire, Hollis Wells Silverman with Eastern Point Collective which operates several restaurants in Washington, D.C., and Erika and Kelly Whitaker for restaurants in Boulder, Colorado.
Some finalists have already been praised, including Michael Rafidi, whose Washington, D.C. restaurant Albi was awarded the coveted Michelin star in 2022. He is among the five finalists as an outstanding chef.
Albi, which means “my heart” in Arabic, pays homage to Rafidi’s Palestinian roots using Old World food preparation techniques. Everything is cooked over charcoal, including grape leaves stuffed with lamb and sfeeha, a meat pie.
“I’m on a mission to continue spreading the light and cooking Palestinian food,” he said.
Another finalist for outstanding chef is David Uygur, who runs a small Italian restaurant in Dallas. Lucia offers fresh, house-made pasta and a popular cured meat board. The menu changes seasonally.
Uighur, whose father is Turkish, became interested in Italian food out of love. His high school sweetheart, now wife, loved Italian cuisine. He sought a sense of intimacy in his restaurant with just nine tables.
“I wanted the restaurant to feel like someone was coming to eat at our house,” he said. “I wanted our guests in our house.”
Other top chef finalists include 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.
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Associated Press writer Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this story.
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