Diplomat chef wins a James Beard Award
Dane Baldwin, the chef-owner of the Diplomat on Milwaukee's lower east side, is the winner of the James Beard Award for best chef in the Midwest.
Baldwin won the award at a ceremony in Chicago on Monday night that recognized chefs and others in the hospitality industry from across the country.
The chef first became a semifinalist for the award in 2019 and a finalist this year, the first live awards ceremony of the pandemic.
Baldwin was chosen over two other Milwaukee finalists, Karen Bell of Bavette la Boucherie, 217 N. Broadway, and Gregory León of Amilinda, 315 E. Wisconsin Ave., and three chefs from Minneapolis.
They were Yia Vang, a former Port Edwards, Wisconsin, resident who now owns Union Kitchen in Minneapolis and has held pop-ups in Milwaukee; Jorge Guzmán, chef-owner of Petite Leon in Minneapolis who worked briefly in La Crosse and has cooked at collaborative dinners in Milwaukee; and Sean Sherman, who opened the indigenous restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis.
Baldwin appeared at a near loss for words at the ceremony at the Lyric Opera. He thanked his wife, Anna, “who has definitely been the pillar behind anything I've done since the day I met her.”
And, he said, “I want to thank everyone who's ever taken a chance on me.”
Baldwin opened the Diplomat in 2017 at 815 E. Brady St., on the street's quieter western end. He refers to his food as “just fancy enough” — dishes often rooted in comfort or family foods, but presented in a modern way.
He'd previously been chef at the Bartolotta group's Mr. B's Steakhouse in Brookfield and had worked at the SURG group, where he picked up his pastry skills.
The Diplomat was a Journal Sentinel best new restaurant in 2017.