What I saw (and ate) at the 2023 James Beard Awards
Earlier this month, I got to do what most food writers dream of: attend the James Beard Awards. People told me it was the Oscars of food, but no one quite prepares you for the glitzy ceremony where you meet the chefs, commentators, and rising stars you’ve been reading about for years and see them in floorlength gowns and tuxedos.
The lead-up to the awards was full of drama. But the 2023 winners came from all over the country — not just the big east and west cities that were represented in years past. “Who knew a chef from Idaho would be standing on this stage,” Kris Komori of Kin in Boise said when he accepted the award for Best Chef of the Mountain region.
In the Northeast, which covers all of the New England states, chef Sherry Pocknett of the Sly Fox Den Too in Charlestown, R.I., was the first Indigenous female chef to be honored for the Best Chef awards. “This is a surprise,” she said, wearing traditional Wampanoag dress and standing next to her eldest daughter. When she announced that she has cancer but is “almost through it,” the crowd at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago erupted in applause.
I watched from my seat in the audience as restaurateurs and their staff members crossed their fingers and were literally on the edge of their seats, waiting for their names to be called. Some put their heads down, as if in defeat, when someone else won.
But the broadcasted ceremony is only part of the party. A post-awards celebration immediately followed at Chicago’s Union Station (yes, they rented out the massive train station) featuring tastings and beverages from chefs around the country. When I walked in, it was like the “who’s who” of the food world. Clare Reichenbach — the CEO of the James Beard Foundation — chatted with me while we were waiting in line for a cocktail. Every national food writer, whose newsletters I read religiously, was gossiping in a room off to the side where the sound of violins played over a speaker. The train station was decorated with greenery, lounge sodas, and sparkling objects.
And there were brands in attendance as well. Mr. Black coffee liqueur made espresso martinis. Guinness had multiple tap lines — not just for its stout, but also for its non-alcoholic offerings and an IPA I’d never even heard of. Unlimited amounts of San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. Wine and whiskey from various producers.
Some of the Beard finalists and previous winners prepared small bites such as mushroom slippery noodles with black bean brown butter from chef Dale Talde at Goose-feather in Tarrytown, N.Y. — which was a James Beard semifinalist. Or quail eggs from Smyth and the Loyalist (Karen Urie Shields, its co-owner, graduated from Johnson & Wales University).
But we were in Chicago, and local flavor was in full celebration. Late on Monday night, going well into Tuesday morning, hundreds of people gathered on the city’s South Side.
For years, Chicago’s South Side earned a reputation for being riddled with crime. But that night, hundreds danced in the streets in ballgowns and showed that food really can bring people together.