Random thoughts on the James Beard Foundation Award nominations, which were announced Monday in Philadelphia:
Chicago did reasonably well, nabbing eight nominations in Restaurant and Chef categories; by comparison, Chicago chefs and restaurants had 12 nominations last year (including big wins for baker Greg Ward, chefs Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim of Parachute, and restaurateurs Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz of Boka Restaurant Group), 10 in 2018 and 9 in 2017 (the year Topolobampo won for Outstanding Restaurant).
No doubt the coronavirus pandemic, which kept voters close to home and countless restaurants closed, contributed to a certain, um, consistency among the nominations. Three of the five Outstanding Restaurant nominees were 2019 nominees as well, three of the five Outstanding Chef nominees were repeats from 2019 and all five of the Outstanding Service nominees were among 2019’s six nominees. (Last year’s winners, naturally, weren’t back on the ballot.)
One 2019 nominee who didn’t repeat was Alisha Elenz, in the Rising Star Chef category. Elenz was on the ballot, but didn’t make the top six; all she did since last year is take control of a second restaurant (Bar Biscay) while continuing to run the kitchen at mfk. Where’s the love, voters? (Disclosure: I’m a voter.)
A note about the process. The semifinalists are selected by the members of the Restaurant and Chef Awards Subcommittee, guided in part by the Call to Entry, in which anyone can submit names for consideration. Nominees are determined by a voting body of subcommittee members, some 250 judges (me again) and more than 300 previous winners of restaurant and chef awards. The same voting body votes again on the nominees to determine the award winners.
JBF extended the number of nominees to 10 in the Best New Restaurant category (a fine idea, because restaurants are only eligible once), which makes the absence of semifinalist Tzuco, where Carlos Gaytan has been absolutely killing it, all the more perplexing. Maybe if Tzuco had opened in time for last May’s awards (it didn’t open until Sept. 15), more voters would have had an opportunity to check it out.
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I figured Greg Wade’s win for Outstanding Baker last year would make it tough for Chicago to make a dent in that category this year. But I wish Stephanie Hart, the owner and chef of Brown Sugar Bakery who was on last year’s ballot, had been on the ballot this year. And it’s high time Aya Fukai of Aya Pastry got a nod, too.
I’m still whining that Meg Galus, a three-time finalist (2016, 2018 and 2019) for Outstanding Pastry Chef, wasn’t even on the ballot. And while I love seeing Sarah Grueneberg as a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef (two years in a row), I wish they’d find room for Stephanie Izard, of Girl & the Goat and other restaurants, who belongs on the ballot as well.
Speaking of ideas whose time has come, It’s time to make Illinois a separate region, as JBF has done for California, New York state and Texas. Chicago’s dominance of the Great Lakes region continues to the detriment (and bitter frustration) of talented chefs in Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis and other areas, who get on the ballot but rarely advance (since 2007, only three non-Chicagoans have won Best Chef: Great Lakes). The Great Lakes region was created in 2007 to deal with Chicago’s dominance in the Midwest region (to the benefit of Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Minneapolis); it’s time to level the field again.
At least one chef I know questioned why JBF even bothered announcing the nominees; the chef reasoned that reminding the majority of the semifinalists that they failed to make the cut would be unnecessarily hurtful. But Mitchell Davis, JBF’s chief strategy officer, did a fine job explaining the foundation’s rationale, arguing that the chosen chefs/restaurants deserved the recognition they earned, and that the awards themselves “could offer a glimmer of hope to an industry looking for light in a very dark time.” I think Davis, and the JBF, got it right.