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The James Beard Awards are back in Chicago, and after a weekend of honoring food media and industry leaders, the Restaurant and Chef awards are taking place Monday night.
[ Last year’s coverage: James Beard Awards 2022 return to Chicago, with chef Erick Williams of Virtue taking home sole local win ]
The Chicago Tribune food team will be on the scene, providing live coverage as prominent chefs and restaurateurs from across the country gather at Lyric’s Civic Opera Building for the award ceremony. Follow them on Twitter, and check back here for live updates throughout the night.
As chefs, restaurant owners, and other culinary heavyweights arrive at the Civic Opera Building, Chicagoans are gracing the event’s red carpet alongside their contemporaries.
Lamar Moore, who joined Bronzeville Winery in April as its new executive chef, said he was excited to support Damarr Brown. Brown is chef de cuisine at Virtue in the Hyde Park neighborhood, and one of the nominees for the Emerging Chef award tonight.
[ South Side native Lamar Moore joins Bronzeville Winery as executive chef: ‘Their mission is also my mission’ ]
“It’s a great problem to have, to get nominated twice like this,” Moore said of Virtue, which also took away a win last year when chef Erick Williams won Best Chef: Great Lakes. ”I’m just proud to be here for Chicago.”
It was a sentiment echoed by fellow Chicagoans D’Andre Carter and Heather Bublick of Soul & Smoke, who attend the awards every year, they said.
“Of course we’d love to see Damarr, Genie Kwon and Timothy Flores, or Diana Dávila, win,” Carter said. “Basically anyone from Chicago. We are here to support the chefs of Chicago.”
Chicago goes into Monday’s Restaurant and Chef awards with one win already locked down. Drinks journalist Emma Janzen and Toby Maloney, head mixologist at The Violet Hour, won a Media Award for “The Bartender’s Manifesto: How to Think, Drink & Create Cocktails Like a Pro,” in the category of beverage books with recipes.
[ New book from The Violet Hour’s Toby Maloney shows you how to make bar’s most legendary cocktails ]
It’s Janzen’s second Beard Award in as many years, as the author won in 2022 for “The Way of the Cocktail,” which she co-wrote with Julia Momosé, bar and creative director of Kumiko.
The James Beard Foundation will livestream the awards, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. You can watch on YouTube, or below:
In January, Smyth, Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining and Wazwan were among 11 Chicagoland restaurants named as semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards.
Of those, five became nominees at the end of March:
Diana Dávila of Mi Tocaya Antojeria and Kasama’s Tim Flores and Genie Kwon are up for the Best Chef: Great Lakes regional category. Also up for the award are Detroit’s Omar Anani (Saffron De Twah), Andy Hollyday (Selden Standard) and Sarah Welch (Marrow).
[ The best places to eat and drink in Chicago: Tribune guides for everything from pizza to Michelin stars ]
Damarr Brown, chef de cuisine at Virtue, is a nominee in the Emerging Chef category. This continues a great run for Virtue, as Erick Williams, the chef and owner, picked up Best Chef: Great Lakes award last year.
In the Best New Restaurant category, Chicago’s Obelix restaurant will go up against nine other restaurants, including Nolia in Cincinnati and Lupi & Iris in Milwaukee.
Sepia restaurant, which opened in 2007 in the West Loop, is among five nominees for Outstanding Hospitality.
More Tribune coverage of Beard award finalists:
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