James Beard Foundation Awards: Spilled Milk #84

Who will win? Who was overlooked?

Two weeks or so ago, the James Beard Foundation announced its finalists in the chefs/restaurants categories for its annual awards. Media award finalists will be announced at the end of April. The awards themselves will be given out June 5 in Chicago.

I will be there, and in full disclosure I was a restaurant committee member long ago during the brief time I was neither “involved” with nor owned any eateries. And, yes, there is an Andrew Zimmern Second Chances Scholarship Fund at the JBF. There is no scholarship funding for 2023, but there will be again for 2024. I also contributed to the audit and overhaul process several years ago, and have been a proud supporter and advocate for the JBF for decades. My father and stepfather were friends of the late Jim Beard and lived two blocks away from him for, well, what seems like forever.

The foundation also announced the winners of the Leadership Award and that the co-founders of the Black Farmer Fund, Olivia Watkins and Karen Washington, would receive the 2023 Humanitarian Award. The incredible and inspiring Madhur Jaffrey will be honored as this year’s winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award. American Classics winners were announced way back in February, and they will receive their awards in Chicago in June as well.

Several years ago the JBF changed its voting mechanics and calculus to address the longstanding biases that had been a part of their awards process. New awards categories were added, and the ability for all prior winners to vote on who moved from the semifinalist to the finalist list (as well as who wins) was eliminated, curtailing the pre-existing white male bias. The process of selecting judges, who had been chosen from traditional food media, was overhauled to ensure that at least 50 percent of committee members and judges be people of color. All great moves in my opinion.

I get the same questions every year and have since Y2K. Did they get it “right”? Who was overlooked? What do you think about this region or that chef, and of course everyone wants to know about anything to do with Minnesota restaurants. And “who will win?” is a question food nerds who follow this stuff are all asking. So let’s dig in.