Minnesota’s Christina Nguyen won “Best Chef: Midwest” at the 2024 James Beard Awards on Monday night in Chicago.
Nguyen won especially for her Hai Hai restaurant in northeast Minneapolis, which puts an unforgettable twist on Southeast Asian cuisine. She also runs the Venezuelan street food hotspot Hola Arepa in south Minneapolis.
More than 100 restaurants were finalists in 22 categories for the culinary world’s equivalent of the Oscars, offering a diverse range of dishes and chef experience, a recent shift after turbulent pandemic years for the James Beard Foundation. Just being a finalist can bring widespread recognition and boost your sales. Among the most anticipated categories were awards for outstanding restaurateurs, chefs and restaurants.
Michael Rafidi, whose Washington, DC restaurant Albi was awarded a coveted Michelin star in 2022, won the award for outstanding chef among five finalists. Albi, which is Arabic for “my heart,” pays tribute to Rafidi’s Palestinian roots by using Old World food preparation techniques. Everything is cooked over charcoal, including grape leaves stuffed with lamb and sfeeha, a meat pie.
“This is for Palestine and all the Palestinian people beyond,” Rafidi told The Associated Press after winning the award. Rafidi, wearing a traditional black and white checkered keffiyeh, said he kept thinking about his Palestinian grandfather, who was also a chef, and how he paved the way for him.
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Restaurants sign up for the prices. Judges, who usually remain anonymous, try the kitchen before voting. Nominees are judged on the food and a code of ethics, including the way employees are treated. On Monday, the winners announced at the Lyric Opera of Chicago venue received engraved medallions.
The award for best new restaurant went to Dakar NOLA, a Senegalese restaurant in New Orleans.
“I always knew that West Africa had something to say,” says chef Serigne Mbaye. “That kept me going.”
The James Beard Foundation has been giving out awards since 1991, except in 2020 and 2021, when the organization eliminated them as the restaurant industry reeled from the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation also faced criticism over a lack of racial diversity and accusations about the behavior of some nominees. Foundation officials vowed to improve ethical standards and be “more reflective of the industry.”
Langbaan, an upscale Thai restaurant that uses ingredients sourced from the Pacific Northwest, won outstanding restaurant, while Chicago restaurant Lula Cafe, a bistro that opened on the city’s north side in 1999, won an award for outstanding hospitality.
Erika and Kelly Whitaker, a couple from Colorado, won the award for outstanding restauranteur.
Their Id Est Hospitality Group runs several restaurants in Colorado, including The Wolf’s Tailor, which serves game such as smoked venison. Their restaurants focus on zero waste and sustainability practices.
“We’re not specifically chasing these awards,” Kelly Whitaker said. “But we’re certainly chasing the platform this brings.”
NOTE: The original air date of the video for this article is May 23, 2024.
