Let's Talk About the Beard Awards: Spilled Milk #105

My thoughts on the ceremony, the winners and how the awards could be even better.

With Gregory Gourdet of Kann and Eric Adjepong. Photo by Huge Galdones.

I was so grateful and honored to co-host the James Beard Foundation Awards this past Monday night in Chicago along with Esther Choi, Eric Adjepong and my dearest Gail Simmons. Seeing so much movement in who is honored, and what type of food is held in highest esteem jibes with much of the way in which many people eat these days.

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In the most general sense, judges rejected European and Westernized food in favor of flavors and tastes from Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and China. Frankly, that’s how most people under the age of 40 are eating and cooking now. Young chefs of all backgrounds across the country are obsessed with Korean fermentation, Japanese ingredients and simplicity, Vietnamese use of herbs and textures, Filipino blending of southeast Asian island pre-colonial foods with the Spanish colonial experience (think adobo) and on and on. Every Michelin-starred restaurant I have dined at in the last year has shown those same influences — and so has every streetside pop-up!

Left, with Sherry Pocknett of Sly Fox Den Too. Right, with Paul Kahan and Chris Bianco. Photos by Huge Galdones.

So why trash the JBFAs for simply leaning into what’s accurately happening?

There’s a lot to digest here, so let me keep it simple.