The James Beard Award Foundation announced the finalists for its 2024 awards this morning, and just six New York City names made the cut. That’s down from nine finalists from the city last year and does not include any local contenders for the coveted Outstanding Restaurateur, Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Restaurant or Best New Restaurant categories.
The awards are akin to the Oscars of the restaurant world, and being nominated often boosts business at establishments. In recent years, the foundation has issued multiple announcements leading up to the awards that continue to winnow down the list of possible winners. This will be the final narrowing down until the winners are announced at the awards ceremony in June.
The flashiest award for which a new New York City name is still in the running is in the Emerging Chef category. Fariyal Abdullahi, the executive chef at Marcus Samuelsson’s new Hav & Mar in Chelsea, cracked the final list of five.
Melba’s in Harlem is the sole New York finalist for Outstanding Hospitality.
The James Beard awards include region-specific chef accolades, including a category specific to New York state. Brooklyn names dominate the category this year, with Nasim Alikhani of Sofreh, Charlie Mitchell of Clover Hill and Jeremy Salamon of Agi’s Counter all still in the running. Atsushi Kono of Kono at 46 Bowery and Chris Mauricio of Harana Market in Accord are also finalists. Junghyun Park of Atomix won last year.
Other upstate names sprinkled the list of finalists, with Ryan Fernandez of Southern Junction up for the Emerging Chef award and Waxlight Bar à Vin in the running for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, both hailing from Buffalo. Mel the Bakery in Hudson is also a finalist for Outstanding Bakery.
The finalists were narrowed down from a group of semifinalists named in January, when dozens of New York names made the cut. Superiority Burger, the highly acclaimed vegetarian spot that reopened in the East Village last year, was the sole New York name in the Outstanding Restaurant category but did not survive the latest cut.
Outstanding Chef semifinalists included Emma Bengtsson of Aquavit in Midtown and Dan Kluger of Loring Place in Greenwich Village. In the running for Outstanding Restaurateur was Ravi DeRossi of Overthrow Hospitality — the group behind Cadence, Etérea, Avant Garden and more — as well as Bryan Chuntan and Pei Wei of Zaab Zaab in Queens and Zaab Zaab Talay in Williamsburg. None of those names are among the finalists.
Three New York City names made the original cut for the Best New Restaurant award but fell short of the finalist stage, including Foul Witch on the Lower East Side, Foxface Natural in the East Village and Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi at Lincoln Center.
The winners will be announced at a June event in Chicago.
See who won last year’s best chef in New York award.
Jack Grieve , 2024-04-03 17:55:03
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