At a gala ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Monday, June 10, restaurants and chefs were honored at the James Beard Awards, often regarded as the Oscars of the food world, highlighting some of the country’s most notable gastronomic talent. The annual accolades given out by nonprofit foundation featured more than 100 restaurants as finalists across 22 categories. All winners receive a certificate and a medallion engraved with the James Beard Foundation Awards insignia.
The 2024 award recipients include Lord Maynard Llera of Los Angeles-based Kuya Lord , who won for Best Chef: California; Masako Morishita of Perry’s (Washington D.C.) for Emerging Chef of the Year; Gregory Gourdet for Best Chef: Northwest-Pacific, who scored his third consecutive medallion; and Dakar NOLA (New Orleans) for Best New Restaurant.
American chef and food writer Ruth Reichl (who, incidentally, helped coin the term “ Oscars of the food world “) received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award. Lula Drake Wine Parlour (Columbia, South Carolina) won for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, a field that also included Ying Chang and Robert Adamson’s Strong Water Anaheim , the only Orange County name nominated this year in any category. SEE ALSO: Strong Water Anaheim founders talk James Beard Awards, cocktail creation and a new project ZU Bakery (Portland, Maine) won for Outstanding Bakery in a category featuring Gusto Bread of Long Beach.
Gusto Bread’s nomination marked the first ti.
