2025 James Beard Awards Recap
Best bites and celeb sightings, plus the surprise book giveaway that delighted everyone during the star-studded weekend in Chicago.
Happy Monday, everyone! If you’ve been following my IG Stories, you’ll know that I’ve been on the road for the last month, dropping into New York, Chicago, and various cities in Spain. I’m still going through my notes and photos, trying to process everything I saw, tasted, and drank, and I can’t wait to share with you my observations on what’s going on food-wise on the national and international level.
However, I’m very glad to be back home and I’m on the slow path back into my normal routine. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on my new restaurant listings, so thank you in advance for your patience on that. Fingers crossed, my combined cheat sheet covering notable Denver openings from May and June will be released at the beginning of next month.
As a result, today’s write-up is going to be a little different, focusing on what went down at the parties for the James Beard Awards last week.
Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:
Best bites and celeb sightings at the James Beard Awards
One final craving (the genius indie activation everyone wishes they thought of first)
Best bites and celeb sightings at the James Beard Awards
This year, I made it out to Chicago for the James Beard Awards, which were celebrating their 35th anniversary. Needless to say, it was an absolute blast.
The Awards, and the packed calendar of expert talks and parties that precede it, are like no other food event in the country. Hundreds of the most talented people working in the restaurant and beverage business (and those of us who cover the industry) all descend upon the Windy City to celebrate, reconnect, network, and party together.
While the activities completely drain the social batteries of introverts like myself, what did get me energized were the opportunities to sample the food from some of the best chefs across the country. Granted, more often than not, these experiences included awkwardly huddling in a corner like a culinary chipmunk, hoping no one was looking as I feverishly shoveled bites into my mouth while trying not to spill everything down my shirt, but you gotta roll with what you’re given!
Here is a rundown of some of the highlights from my Awards weekend:
TAAF AANHPI Culinary Celebration
This year, The Asian American Foundation held its annual event at Perilla Korean American Steakhouse, a new restaurant led by executive chef Andrew Lim that opened last year on the ground floor of the L7 Chicago hotel. The party quickly filled up after doors opened, turning trips to the food tables into a feat of extreme crowd-weaving – but persistence was key and there certainly were bites well worth elbow jostling for:
A well-executed arctic char tartare by Chicago’s own Zubair Mohajir of Coach House and Lilac Tiger, a recent “Top Chef: Destination Canada” cheftestant.
The icon that is Nok Suntaranon of Kalaya in Philadelphia created a sweet and savory khao niaw na goong with coconut turmeric rice, river prawn, and topped it with a salted coconut cream.
Susan Bae, the D.C.-based pastry chef from Moon Rabbit, served a stunning black sesame mousse verrine with hibiscus gelée, matcha sponge cake, and lychee in a bubble bowl, showcasing the talent that earned her an Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker nomination this year.
My favorite bite of the night was a perfectly portioned scotch quail egg created by Helen Nguyen of NYC’s Saigon Social.
South x Second City party
The South x Second City party at Monteverde – presented by the Southern Foodways Alliance – was rockin’ with its live funk-soul-jazz band and a strong lineup of tasty bites from big hitters in the Chicago food scene:
In the alternate bizarro world that is the Awards weekend, I spotted legendary chef Rick Bayless quietly working his station – serving a chilled Pai Pai oyster with tuna ceviche and caviar – while guests walked right by without even a second glance.
Top Chef finalist and Monteverde executive chef, Bailey Sullivan, served a lovely beef tartare made with Westholme Australian Wagyu and paired with a parm pizzelle.
I grabbed one of the massive sesame-spotted black and white cookies from the station of Bo Durham, executive pastry chef at Mindy’s Bakery and stashed it in my bag with the intention of eating it as a pre-awards ceremony snack. Then I forgot about it and found it the next day, and now my bag smells like cookies (not a bad thing?)
James Beard Awards reception
The Awards are always a joyous celebration of the best in American food and often include standout moments — like the monster win for Boulder, CO institution Frasca Food and Wine winning Outstanding Restaurant (!!!). But the ceremony is notoriously long (three hours), starts right at dinnertime, and the award ceremony snacks are surprisingly sparse.
This year the only form of sustenance allowed inside the theater were bottles of water from sponsors Aqua Panna and San Pellegrino and Local Style potato chips, seasoned with famous Chicago flavors like Italian beef and deep dish pizza.
So by the time the last award is being handed out, most people are getting hangry and very eager to get some food. As soon as socially appropriate, people start rushing to the doors and heading to the reception, usually while the hosts are still on the stage saying their goodbyes to the audience watching from home. The party continues at Union Station, which is transformed into a star-studded mini food fest, featuring a selection of bites from previous James Beard Award winners, nominees, and semifinalists.
With so many tasty items under one roof, it’s always a good time, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that a few dishes really stood out. My favorite nibbles and celeb sightings of the evening included:
Last year’s Best New Restaurant winner, Dakar NOLA was on hand, with executive chef Serigne Mbaye serving a black-eyed pea soup with gulf crab to the hungry crowd.
Stationed one table over was last year’s Best Chef: Mountain winner, Matt Vawter of Rootstalk and Radicato in Breckenridge, CO, who made a summer-forward agnolotti with English peas and roasted mushrooms.
I hope other guests didn’t let the simple presentation of Nora Allen’s smørrebrød fool them into passing over the dish because it was incredible. The chef, who’s Hudson, NY shop Mel the Bakery was a 2024 Outstanding Bakery nominee, made a fresh-milled New York State-grown danko rye bread topped with whipped butter and summer radishes.
2024 Best Chef Southwest semifinalist Jacque Siegfried of Nātv in Broken Arrow, OK, served one of the more healthy options of the evening with a generous portion of blue corn mush bowl topped with berries, a sweet treat.
Among one of the most talked-about dishes of the night was a lovely English pea wonton in a tom kha broth made by 2024 Best Chef: Midwest winner Christina Nguyen of Hai Hai in Minneapolis, MN.
Is it telling that in a room full of world-famous chefs like Daniel Boulud and Marcus Samuelsson, the person I absolutely needed to get a picture with was chef, restaurateur, and — most importantly — memelord, Eli Sussman?
While some folks made their way to spots like etc. or Frontier for the after-after parties, I ended up at a laid-back hang at Maxwell’s Trading, the restaurant from 2025 Best Chef: Great Lakes nominees Chris Jung and Erling Wu-Bower, where the kitchen was closed but a mountain of tavern-style pies from the buzzy tavern-style pizzeria Pizza Amici and an open bag of Hi-Chews were waiting.
I returned to Maxwell’s the next night for the only “normal” meal of my trip. The food and service were on point, and thanks to solid recommendations from my server, I ordered a garlicky black sea bass with black beans and a clay pot of mushroom rice with truffle butter. The pot was massive, so most of it came with me to the airport and became my extremely bougie leftovers for the next couple of days.
One final craving
Authors, marketers, and hustlers take note! Technically not food, but easily one of the most memorable moments of the weekend came from New York City photographer Gary He.
To get his James Beard Award-nominated book “McAtlas” into the hands of some of the most influential food folks in the country, He shipped around 1,000 copies to Chicago, rented a white U-Haul, hired a street team, and set up outside the official Awards after-parties and handed out free copies to anyone walking by.
The giveaway, announced just two days before the Media Awards, was timed to ensure it had no impact on voting or results. As it happened, “McAtlas” – a self-published passion project and visual exploration of the surprising differences between McDonald’s menus in over 50 countries – won both awards it was nominated for. By the time the McAtlases were being handed out, He was giving away free copies of an award-winning book, and people clamored to grab one.
While it had the makings of a super-savvy guerrilla marketing stunt, when I reached out to He over email, he explained that for him it was really a thank-you gesture. “I've been very fortunate to have various pieces of work recognized by the foundation throughout my food and restaurant reporting journey,” he said. “So I wanted to give something to the community of industry luminaries that come to the event.”
By He’s estimate, the giveaway likely cost over $50,000 to produce. But for him, it was worth it. “The best part of the whole operation was all the enthusiasm!” he said. “I feel like it added a different level of energy to the event without being too much of a disruption. Legends like Rose Levy Berenbaum, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, and Gail Simmons came up to collect their books and chat, which was pretty cool.”
Reasons why this activation worked:
It was an appealing + quality item. The book’s subject matter is universally intriguing (everyone has thoughts about McDonald’s) and the book is weighty and expensive-feeling. Even if you hadn’t heard about the book’s 2x win, you could tell it was something worth checking out, just by looking at it.
Unexpected, fun, + on brand. The element of surprise and keeping with the indie spirit of being a self-published project worked in He’s favor. The Awards are a pretty formal affair. Getting handed a book on a street corner is anything but. The contrast made recipients feel like they were in on something punk rock and subversive.
Social media amplification. He documented the giveaway for posterity on his Instagram account with photos of well-known celebs, chefs, and writers holding their copies. Even if you didn’t get a book, if you saw the post, your interest was piqued by seeing others excited to receive theirs.
For anyone thinking about pulling off something similar in future years, He stresses the importance of respecting the Awards' boundaries. He was careful not to disrupt any official events, which included staying off property where ceremonies were held and only interacting with attendees en route to after-parties.
While stopping short of actively encouraging copycats, He pointed out that with so many ancillary events happening throughout Awards weekend, there’s plenty of room for a well-timed, feel-good stunt noting “there’s no shortage of opportunities for the aspiring miscreant.”
ICYMI: Last month I wrote about an iconic Denver sushi chef who just opened an exclusive new chefs counter, a joyful Venezuelan spot that’s deliciously affordable, and an old schoolhouse finding new life as a beer hall. ✨Read it here✨
Loved this extensive recap! I just did a recap on Substack as well!
And the McAtlas stunt was truly EPiC.