Restaurateurs, chefs, and other hospitality insiders came together Monday night to celebrate the winners of the prestigious awards. The James Beard Foundation unveiled the winners for the 2019 edition across nearly 60 categories at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Raleigh, North Carolina-based chef Ashley Christensen, known for her restaurants Poole’s Diner, Death & Taxes, and Beasley’s Chicken + Honey, walked away with the Outstanding Chef award. Michael Solomonov’s modern Israeli restaurant, Zahav, was named Outstanding Restaurant. Two-time nominee Best Chef: Southeast for Savannah restaurant The Grey, Mashama Bailey, won that award this year.
The 2019 James Beard celebrations kicked off the previous week on April 26 when the Media Awards were presented in New York City (see below for winners).
Here are the winners:
2019 James Beard Foundation Restaurant Design Awards
75 Seats and Under
Firm: Studio Writers
Project: Atomix, NYC
76 Seats and Over
Firm: Parts and Labor Design
Project: Pacific Standard Time, Chicago
Other Eating and Drinking Places
Firm: Schwartz and Architecture (S^A)
Project: El Pípila, San Francisco
Design Icon
Canlis
Seattle
2019 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards
Best New Restaurant
Frenchette
NYC
Outstanding Baker
Greg Wade
Publican Quality Bread
Chicago
Outstanding Bar Program
Bar Agricole
San Francisco
Outstanding Chef (Presented by All-Clad Metalcrafters)
Ashley Christensen
Poole’s Diner
Raleigh, NC
Outstanding Pastry Chef (Presented by Lavazza)
Kelly Fields
Willa Jean
New Orleans
Outstanding Restaurant (Presented by S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water)
Zahav
Philadelphia
Outstanding Restaurateur (Presented by Magellan Corporation)
Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz
Boka Restaurant Group (Boka, Girl & the Goat, Momotaro, and others)
Chicago
Outstanding Service
Frasca Food and Wine
Boulder, CO
Outstanding Wine Program (Presented by Robert Mondavi Winery)
Benu
San Francisco
Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Producer
Rob Tod
Allagash Brewing Company
Portland, ME
Rising Star Chef of the Year (Presented by S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water)
Kwame Onwuachi
Kith and Kin
Washington, D.C.
Best Chefs in America (Presented by Capital One)
Best Chef: Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)
Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark
Parachute
Chicago
Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (D.C., DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)
Tom Cunanan
Bad Saint
Washington, D.C.
Best Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)
Ann Kim
Young Joni
Minneapolis
Best Chef: New York City (Five Boroughs)
Jody Williams and Rita Sodi
Via Carota
Best Chef: Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY State, RI, VT)
Tony Messina
Uni
Boston
Best Chef: Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY)
Brady Williams
Canlis
Seattle
Best Chef: South (AL, AR, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, FL, LA, MS)
Vishwesh Bhatt
Snackbar
Oxford, MS
Best Chef: Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)
Mashama Bailey
The Grey
Savannah, GA
Best Chef: Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, OK, TX, UT)
Charleen Badman
FnB
Scottsdale, AZ
Best Chef: West (CA, HI, NV)
Michael Cimarusti
Providence
Los Angeles
2019 James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Honorees (Presented by American Airlines)
Pho 79
Garden Grove, CA
Owners: Thọ Trần and Liễu Trần
Jim’s Steak & Spaghetti House
Huntington, WV
Owners: Jimmie Tweel Carder, Larry Tweel, and Ron Tweel
A&A Bake & Double Roti Shop
Brooklyn, NY
Owner: Noel and Geeta Brown
Sehnert’s Bakery & Bieroc Café
McCook, NE
Owners: Matt and Shelly Sehnert
Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse
Washington, D.C.
Owner: Paul Katinas
2019 James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year
The Giving Kitchen
Non-profit that provides emergency assistance to food service workers through financial support and a network of community resources.
2019 James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award
Patrick O’Connell
Five-time James Beard Award winner, 3-star Michelin chef, author, and owner of The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, VA
The 2019 James Beard Foundation Book Awards
For cookbooks and other non-fiction food- or beverage-related books that were published in the U.S. in 2018.
American
Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day
JJ Johnson and Alexander Smalls with Veronica Chambers
(Flatiron Books)
Baking and Desserts
SUQAR: Desserts & Sweets from the Modern Middle East
Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf
(Hardie Grant Books)
Beverage
Wine Folly: Magnum Edition
Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack
(Avery)
General
Milk Street: Tuesday Nights
Christopher Kimball
(Little, Brown and Company)
Health and Special Diets
Eat a Little Better
Sam Kass
(Clarkson Potter)
International
Feast: Food of the Islamic World
Anissa Helou
(Ecco)
Photography
Tokyo New Wave
Andrea Fazzari
(Ten Speed Press)
Reference, History, and Scholarship
Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry
Anna Zeide
(University of California Press)
Restaurant and Professional
Chicken and Charcoal: Yakitori, Yardbird, Hong Kong
Matt Abergel
(Phaidon Press)
Single Subject
Goat: Cooking and Eating
James Whetlor
(Quadrille Publishing)
Vegetable-Focused Cooking
Saladish
Ilene Rosen
(Artisan Books)
Writing
Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine
Edward Lee
(Artisan Books)
Book of the Year
Cocktail Codex
Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, and David Kaplan, with Devon Tarby
(Ten Speed Press)
Cookbook Hall of Fame
Jessica B. Harris
2019 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Awards
For radio, television broadcasts, podcasts, webcasts, and documentaries appearing in 2018. These awards were announced on April 26, 2019.
Documentary
Modified
Airs on: Film festivals and Vimeo
Online Video, Fixed Location and/or Instructional
MasterClass – Dominique Ansel Teaches French Pastry Fundamentals
Airs on: MasterClass
Online Video, on Location
First We Feast’s Food Skills – Mozzarella Kings of New York
Airs on: YouTube
Outstanding Personality
Marcus Samuelsson
No Passport Required
Airs on: PBS
Outstanding Reporting
Deep Dive and Food for Thought, 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics
Reporter: David Chang
Airs on: NBC, NBCSN
Podcast
Copper & Heat – Be a Girl
Airs on: Copper & Heat, iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher
Radio Show
The Food Chain – Raw Grief and Widowed
Airs on: BBC World Service
Special (on TV or Online)
Spencer’s BIG Holiday
Airs on: Gusto
Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location
Pati’s Mexican Table – Tijuana: Stories from the Border
Airs on: WETA Washington; Distributed Nationally by American Public Television
Television Program, on Location
Salt Fat Acid Heat – Salt
Airs on: Netflix
Visual and Technical Excellence
Anthony Bourdain: Explore Parts Unknown
Sarah Hagey, August Thurmer, and Kate Kunath
Airs on: CNN, Explore Parts Unknown, Roads & Kingdoms
2019 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards
For articles published in English in 2018.
Columns
What We Talk About When We Talk About American Food: “The Pickled Cucumbers That Survived the 1980s AIDS Epidemic”; “A Second Look at the Tuna Sandwich’s All-American History”; and “Freedom and Borscht for Ukrainian-Jewish Émigrés”
Mari Uyehara
Taste
Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award
Counter Intelligence: “The Hearth & Hound, April Bloomfield’s New Los Angeles Restaurant, Is Nothing Like a Gastropub”; “There’s Crocodile and Hog Stomach, but Jonathan Gold Is All About the Crusty Rice at Nature Pagoda”; and “At Middle Eastern Restaurants, It All Starts with Hummus. Jonathan Gold says Bavel’s Is Magnificent”
Jonathan Gold
Los Angeles Times
Dining and Travel
“Many Chinas, Many Tables”
Jonathan Kauffman and Team
San Francisco Chronicle
Feature Reporting
“A Kingdom from Dust”
Mark Arax
The California Sunday Magazine
Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication
New York Magazine
Robin Raisfeld, Rob Patronite, Maggie Bullock, and the Staff of New York Magazine
Foodways
“A Hunger for Tomatoes”
Shane Mitchell
The Bitter Southerner
Health and Wellness
“Clean Label’s Dirty Little Secret”
Nadia Berenstein
The New Food Economy
Home Cooking
“The Subtle Thrills of Cold Chicken Salad”
Cathy Erway
Taste
Innovative Storytelling
“In Search of Water-Boiled Fish”
Angie Wang
Eater
Investigative Reporting
“A Killing Season”
Boyce Upholt
The New Republic
Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award
“Yes Indeed, Lord: Queen’s Cuisine, Where Everything Comes from the Heart”; “Top 10 New Orleans Restaurants for 2019”; and “Sexual Harassment Allegations Preceded Sucré Co-Founder Tariq Hanna’s Departure”
Brett Anderson
Nola.com | The Times-Picayune
M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award
“What Is Northern Food?”
Steve Hoffman
Artful Living
Personal Essay, Long Form
“I Made the Pizza Cinnamon Rolls from Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter”
Geraldine DeRuiter
Everywhereist.com
Personal Essay, Short Form
“I’m a Chef with Terminal Cancer. This Is What I’m Doing with the Time I Have Left”
Fatima Ali
Bon Appétit
Profile
“The Short and Brilliant Life of Ernest Matthew Mickler”
Michael Adno
The Bitter Southerner
Wine, Spirits, and Other Beverages
“‘Welch’s Grape Jelly with Alcohol’: How Trump’s Horrific Wine Became the Ultimate Metaphor for His Presidency”
Corby Kummer
Vanity Fair
Publication of the Year
The New York Times
