Chef Hari Pulapaka,
of DeLand’s Cress Restaurant, is among 20 chefs selected to cook at Monday’s James Beard Foundation Awards Gala at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Central Florida won’t be unrepresented at this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards Gala.
Chef Hari Pulapaka, of DeLand’s Cress Restaurant, will be one of 20 chefs selected to cook at the gala, which will be held Monday at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The four-time James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist will be assisted by his wife, Dr. Jenneffer Pulapaka and chef Josh Oakley of The Smiling Bison in Sanford.
The gala’s theme, RISE, will celebrate chefs who ‘rise to the occasion,’ according to a news release.
No Central Florida chefs made it onto the James Beard Foundation Award’s semifinalist list this year. The winners will be announced at this gala.
“I feel a sense of responsibility to showcase not just my flavors and cooking philosophy, but also to show that our region’s creativity, sensibility, and contributions to the state of food in the United States, parallels the best,” Pulapaka said.
At the gala, Pulapaka will serve Lionfish Bhel Puri (a Mumbai street food) — a dish that is a full-circle between his childhood in India and his adult commitment to sourcing only sustainable seafood.
“The dish will be a seamless marriage of bright, refreshing and taste-bud-exciting flavors and textures,” Pulapaka said. “And the dish clearly carries a personal and professional story for me. It’s how I like to cook and eat.”
Pulapaka was also tasked with filling in the blank in the sentence “I Rise for ____” for his gala theme. He chose “humanity.” Pulapaka said he wanted to use a word that captured his sense of care for the world.
“At the risk of being utopian, when the dust finally settles, it won’t matter much if all of humanity doesn’t act with a sense of investment for the common good,” Pulapaka said. Despite the political rhetoric, borders are blurring faster than they are being built.
“To quote a famous American, ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ ”
Over the years, Pulapaka has taken on issues related to food, from social justice to sustainable seafood through events and leadership roles. Pulapaka was chosen to cook at the gala in part because of his attendance of the foundation’s Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change in 2013.
Food is a medium that brings people to a common table, Pulapaka said. He rises for humanity because he is a human first — and he wants his actions to help the greater good.
“Just as there are only so many meals in a person’s lifetime, there are only so many opportunities to live a life of meaning [to self, at the very least] and substance,” Pulapaka said.