A bakery, a baker, a restaurant and a chef from Portland will find out Monday night if they’ll join the growing list of Mainers with James Beard Awards. The Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony at Lyric Opera of Chicago will be livestreamed on YouTube starting at 6:30 p.m.
The four Maine finalists are: Zu Bakery for Outstanding Bakery, Atsuko Fujimoto of Norimoto Bakery for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker, Woodford Food & Beverage for Outstanding Hospitality and Jake Stevens of Leeward for Best Chef: Northeast. Zu Bakery, a micro-boulangerie that owner Barak Olins opened in 2022 in Portland’s West End, is up against The Burque Bakehouse of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Gusto Bread of Long Beach, California; JinJu Patisserie of Portland, Oregon; and Mel the Bakery of Hudson, New York. Fujimoto, who was previous a finalist for the same award in 2022 and a semifinalist last year, is competing with Anna Posey of the Scandinavian-inspired restaurant Elske in Chicago; Susan Bae, pastry chef of the acclaimed Vietnamese fine-dining restaurant Moon Rabbit in Washington, D.
C.; Crystal Kass of Valentine restaurant in Phoenix; and Jesus Brazon and Manuel Brazon, Caracas Bakery, Doral and Miami, Florida. Woodford F&B, whose chef Courtney Loreg was a finalist in 2022, is contending with Gemma in Dallas, Lula Cafe in Chicago, Melba’s in New York City and Crawford and Son in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Stevens is up against four other New England finalists: Conor Dennehy of the tasting menu re.
