Recap: 2023 James Beard Awards Gala

The Oscar’s of the food world occurred last night and boy what a night it was! The 2023 James Beard Restaurant and Chef awards was hosted at the Lyric Opera house in Chicago.

2023 James Beard Awards Gala

Chicago was nominated for the following awards:

Best New Restaurant
Obélix, Chicago, IL

Emerging Chef Presented by S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Mineral Water
Damarr Brown, Virtue, Chicago, IL

Outstanding Hospitality Presented by American Airlines
Sepia, Chicago, IL

Best Chef: Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)
Diana Dávila, Mi Tocaya Antojería, Chicago, IL
Tom Flores and Genie Kwon, Kasama, Chicago, IL

And the Winners Are….

Chef Damarr Brown of Virtue Restaurant brought home the Emerging Chef award and Kasama brought home Best Chef: Great Lakes. For the full list of winners click HERE.

The James Beard Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to celebrate, support, and elevate the people behind America’s food culture and champion a standard of good food anchored in talent, equity, and sustainability.

June 3rd – June 5th was known as awards weekend in Chicago. The James Beard Awards Weekend included the Media Awards, Leadership Awards, and Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremonies, as well as ancillary event programming.

This is truly one of my favorite weekends because Chef’s know how to party! I entrenched myself with all the activities and ended my weekend covering the Restaurant and Chef awards for my third year. There was an estimated 1,650 people in attendance. A very packed house! Relive the James Beard Awards weekend through my highlights below. See ya next year! 🙂

Highlights

JBF Session: Food Access & Sustainable Communities.

A sustainable community is defined by its ability to manage its human, natural, and financial capital to meet current needs while ensuring adequate resources for future generations. Equitable food access is a key feature of this model, but what happens when the human capital is unable to sustain itself? The chefs and activists in this discussion addressed this challenge and what drives it, and their solution towards a better future while investing in the present.

Moderator: Colleen Vincent, VP of Community, James Beard Foundation

Nominated and/or Award winning James Beard Panelist included:

Rick Bayless
Maya-Camille Broussard
Brandon Chrostowski
Valerie Horn
Justin Pioche
Sarah Welch
Erick Williams

One thing that was reiterated in the discussion by the chefs was how important employee meals are in the restaurant industry.

Chef Erick said: “The way I view sustainability through food and workforce efforts is a little different. Most of us understand what it’s like to be hangry, when we wait too long to eat, so we’re hungry and angry. That’s not the best place to be at a job. We recognize this idea that when we have a limited access to food it limits our ability to fully understand what’s happening in real time. When we don’t have access to food we feel devalued.

When you think about these three things in context..I’m hangry, I’m unclear, and I feel devalued…those are not the attributes you would naturally think about in a work place. So what we try to do at Virtue and our concepts is we serve food to our employees at the restaurant. So for a person that has limited access to food, to work at a place and get a check, save the money you would spend on your first meal (or only meal that day) is a huge huge value. It’s more than money. It changes how you feel about yourself .”

Industry gatherings throughout the weekend

There’s no shortage of official ancillary events hosted through James Beard awards weekend. I started off my day with a “Bacon, Bubbles, and Brunch” event hosted inside The White City Ballroom at the Chicago Athletic Association. The event featured Executive Chef Lamar Moore from Bronzeville Winery, Executive Chef Kaleena Bliss from Cindy’s Rooftop, and the culinary team at the Chicago athletic association. Pics from the brunch below!

Executive Chef of Bronzeville Winery: Lamar Moore

Far Right: Owner/Chef Dakar Nola – Serigne Mbaye

Journalist: Sylvia Perez

My day was just getting started! After brunch I hit up a few other James Beard ancillary events hosted at Three Dots & a Dash, The Bassment, and ended my day at Waldorf Astoria. There are sooooo many events. They sent the media a 17 page PDF of official events to choose from. Notice I said “official” there’s also numerous “unofficial” events being hosted as well.

The James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards

Blurry Pic! Chef Carla Hall and Chef Sarah Jayne

The awards show is definitely one of my favorite events to cover. I interview chefs all year long, I do food reviews all year long, and I LOVE this industry! Our hosts this year were:

Chef Eric Adjepong
Chef Ester Choi
Chef Gail Simmons
Chef Andrew Zimmern

One of the moments that touched me the most was when Chef Andrew Zimmern was awarding the Humanitarian award to the co-founders of the Black Farmer Fund: social entrepreneur and impact investor Olivia Watkins, and farmer and activist Karen Washington. Such a touching moment!

Humanitarian Award: Black Farmer Fund

After the award show the party doesn’t end there…Following the awards there was a walk around tasting hosted at Union Station. The party is attended by over 1600 chefs, restauranteurs, food media, and culinary enthusiasts. The event features food and beverage stations highlighting chefs from around the country.

Looking Forward to Next Year!