The James Beard Awards took over the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Monday evening
The awards recognize excellence in America’s food and restaurant industry.
“This has become one of the greatest food cities, full stop,’ said chef TV personality Andrew Zimmern.
Three Chicago chefs were nominated for awards this year.
Bailey Sullivan of Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio was nominated for Emerging Chef. Norman Fenton from Cariño and Jacob Potashnick from Feld were both nominated for the Best Chef award for the Great Lakes.
Each of the local nominees shared what a win would mean to them.
“A win would mean such a win for Chicago,” Sullivan said. “To be a native here and to celebrate that, fingers crossed, you never know.”
“I think it would bring a really bigger focusing lens on what Mexican food is doing in the fine dining community in the United States,” Fenton said.
“To be at the awards in the city where I have the restaurant is … this is the coolest thing. And I love Chicago, and that’s why I opened the restaurant here,” Potashnick said.
Chef Fenton used the moment to spotlight immigration challenges in the restaurant industry and his own life. His wife and sons remained in Mexico until the family was reunited last fall after a lengthy immigration process.
“As long as we keep continuing the fight and putting our money where our mouth is, I think we’ll get the right results that we’re looking for because at the end of the day we are all humans,” he said.
The James Beard Foundation Award was established in 1990, and first awarded the following year. Originally held in New York, the award ceremony was first held in Chicago in 2015, and the city will host the awards through 2028, according to the city’s tourism marketing organization.
“We will come to the table and definitely try to keep them here because we know how to do this. We did over 41 events this weekend,” said Sam Toia, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association.
In the end, Chicago wasn’t just hosting the Beard Awards. It is also celebrating one of its own as Potashnick took home the award for Best Chef Great Lakes.
“Feld is a really young restaurant and we have so much further to go. We still have time to be so thank you very, very much for this,” he said while accepting the award.
The awards stand for both culinary merit and personal integrity, something that award namesake James Andrews Beard himself represented. Beard (1903-1985) made history several times with groundbreaking cookbooks, television’s first cooking show and his establishment of the James Beard Cooking School.
Ahead of the ceremony Monday night was Saturday’s James Beard Media Awards, which focus on honoring food or drink-related books, broadcast media and journalism.
Sunday also held the James Beard Impact Awards, which the foundation says honors those working to make the food industry more equitable, sustainable and economically viable.
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