These Arizona restaurants took home top honors at the Devour Culinary Classic 2024

Bahar Anooshahr, Arizona Republic
·2 min read

The 15th annual Devour Culinary Classic competition results are in.

The annual event took place on Feb. 24 and 25 at Desert Botanical Garden in partnership with the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance. A panel of judges, including food writers and critics from around the country, tasted dishes from 50 participating Arizona restaurants. They scored the dishes based on taste, presentation, creativity and degree of difficulty.

This year's judges included South Carolina-based writer, culinary instructor and ICS World Chili Cookoff judge Stephanie Burnett; former Arizona Republic food critic Howard Seftel; Portland-based food and beverage writer Katherine Chew Hamilton; New York City-based chef, writer and James Beard Finalist Natasha Pickowicz; and James Beard media award winner and Texas Monthly taco editor Jose R. Ralat.

Best in Show

A group of eight chefs from The Gastronomic Union of Tucson won best in show for the following dishes:

  • Birria campanelle, made with fried grano arzo campanelle with Barrio Beer beef birria guisado, cilantro oil, cotija, corn cream, avocado and lime salsa.

  • Tacos de canasta de calabazo and cascabel ― Mesquite roasted local white squash, Cascabel chiles, tepary beans, pepitas, corn tortilla, vegan cream, pomegranate pickled shallots, mushroom chicharron with Sonoran chile crisp and micro cilantro.

  • Jamaica and Limoncello cheesecake.

Double gold medal

A dish that earns a unanimous gold from all of the judges earns a double gold medal. Restaurants with dishes that won a double gold medal included:

  • Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.'s Arizona wagyu slider with duck fat rosemary fries.

  • Cafe Lalibela's Red lentils and cabbage, chicken and yellow split peas.

  • Chilte's Duroc pork tomahawk with huitlacoche chiltepin mole.

  • Tia Carmen's tuna tostada and vanilla flan.

The Lalibela Deluxe combo plate at Cafe Lalibela features multiple varieties of alicha, gomen collard greens and fossolia green beans.
The Lalibela Deluxe combo plate at Cafe Lalibela features multiple varieties of alicha, gomen collard greens and fossolia green beans.

Gold medal

Whereas last year 10 dishes won gold, this year only two claimed this medal:

  • Chula Seafood's dry-aged fish.

  • JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa's paella royale with charred octopus.

Silver medal

17 restaurants won silver medals.

  • Board + Batten

  • Campo Italian Bistro

  • Carcara

  • Clever Koi

  • Dahl Restaurant Group

  • Frites Street

  • Latha

  • Litchfield's at the Wigwam

  • Lom Wong

  • Poolboy Taco

  • Roka Akor

  • Renata's Hearth

  • Rough Rider

  • Sandfish

  • Sonoran Pasta Bar

  • The Gladly/Citizen Public House

  • Uchi

Bronze medal

14 restaurants won bronze medals.

  • Aioli Gourmet Burger

  • Canal Club

  • Fellow Osteria

  • Kembara

  • Lucero

  • Lylo Swim Club

  • Ocean Prime

  • Phoenician Tavern

  • Phoenix Culinary Collective

  • Prado

  • PV Pie and Wine

  • Renaissance Phoenix: Dust Cutter

  • The Peppermill

  • Zuzu

Heritage medal

The Heritage Medal is given to the best dishes made with Indigenous, heirloom, low-water, desert-adapted or locally sourced ingredients. This year, the medal was given to The Rez: An Urban Eatery for its chocolate mole tamale and jackfruit taco on fresh blue corn tortilla.

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Reach the reporter at BAnooshahr@azcentral.com. Follow @banooshahr on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: These Arizona restaurants won 2024 Devour Culinary Classic medals