James Beard Awards: Game-changing Palm Beach chef in semifinals race for ‘Oscars of Food’

Liz Balmaseda, Palm Beach Post
Updated ·3 min read

A Palm Beach chef whose contemporary American bistro and creative small plates transformed the island’s dining scene is in the running for a coveted James Beard Award. Clay Conley, chef/partner at Buccan Palm Beach restaurant, earned a spot on the semifinals list for the award that’s often referred to as the “Oscars of Food.”

The James Beard Foundation released its list of 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards semifinalists early Wednesday, naming Conley among 22 chefs in the category for “Best Chef” in the South.

Conley, one of six Florida chefs to make the semifinals list in that category, is the only Palm Beach County chef listed this year. Five local chefs earned semifinalist nods last year.

Now a seven-time James Beard Award semifinalist, Conley got the news Wednesday morning as he was working in his Buccan kitchen, perfecting a caviar panna cotta recipe for this weekend’s Naples Winter Wine Festival.

Thursday dinner: Buccan chef/partner Clay Conley addresses an opening-night crowd during the Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival's "First Bite" dinner as his wife Averill Conley looks on.
Thursday dinner: Buccan chef/partner Clay Conley addresses an opening-night crowd during the Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival's "First Bite" dinner as his wife Averill Conley looks on.

Later by phone, Conley credited his Buccan team, “an amazing group of guys who have been with me forever,” for their support in his scratch, season-driven kitchen.

“Life is good,” said Conley, who opened Buccan with his Ember Group partners Sam Slattery and Piper Quinn in late January 2011.

Today, the chef remains hands-on in the Buccan kitchen, even though his commute home has grown by a few hours.

Clay Conley, a partner at Buccan bistro in Palm Beach, is a nationally acclaimed chef.
Clay Conley, a partner at Buccan bistro in Palm Beach, is a nationally acclaimed chef.

More on Buccan: How Chef Clay Conley’s bistro became an icon for a new Palm Beach

'Work/life balance' on farm

Buccan Palm Beach chef Clay Conley holds a piglet on his farm near Gainesville, Florida.
Buccan Palm Beach chef Clay Conley holds a piglet on his farm near Gainesville, Florida.

In August 2022, Conley and his family moved to a farmhouse near Gainesville, where they grow vegetables, raise pigs and chickens and enjoy rural life. The chef drives regularly to Palm Beach, where he spends days at a time at Buccan and his other restaurants, Imoto in Palm Beach and Grato in West Palm Beach.

Moving to the countryside with his wife Averill and their children Micaela and Camden was a dream fulfilled for the chef who grew up on a farm in Maine.

“I think it really forced me to have a legit work/life balance, which I always talked about and thought I had,” said Conley, 49, who compared spending time at the farm to “a switch going off.”

Earlier in the week, he spent hours breaking down a “huge tree” that had fallen on the farm. “I love being outside,” said Conley, who also recounted the recent birth of six piglets.

Flashback to last year: See the 2023 James Beard Awards semifinalists

More James Beard Award semifinalists in Florida

Tristen Epps is executive chef of Ocean Social restaurant at the Eden Roc resort in Miami Beach.
Tristen Epps is executive chef of Ocean Social restaurant at the Eden Roc resort in Miami Beach.

In the “Best Chef: South” category, Conley joins a lineup of fellow Florida chefs that include:

  • Miami rising star chef Valerie Chang, whose Peruvian restaurant Maty’s debuted in March 2023.

  • Acclaimed Chef Tristen Epps, who takes inspiration from his Trinidadian roots in his kitchen at Ocean Social restaurant at the Eden Roc resort in Miami Beach.

  • Chefs Jennifer Berdin and Mark Berdin of Kadence restaurant in Orlando.

  • Chef Henry Moso of the popular Kabooki Sushi in Orlando.

Other Florida culinary talent on the semifinals list for a James Beard Award include:

  • Wynwood kosher baker Zak Stern, a repeat semifinalist (and a 2023 finalist) earned an “Outstanding Bakery” nod for his Zak the Baker shop in Wynwood.

  • Doral bakers Jesús and Manuel Brazón of Caracas Bakery are among the semifinalists in the “Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker” category.

  • Miami Beach’s Macchialina restaurant, a 2023 semifinalist, once again earned a semifinalist slot in the “Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program” category.

  • In St. Petersburg, Webb’s City Cellar landed a spot in the “Outstanding Bar” category.

Finalists for the James Beard Awards are scheduled to be announced April 3. Winners will be revealed in a ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on June 10.

Clay Conley at Buccan

Chef Clay Conley opened Buccan modern bistro in Palm Beach with partners Piper Quinn and Sam Slattery in 2011.
Chef Clay Conley opened Buccan modern bistro in Palm Beach with partners Piper Quinn and Sam Slattery in 2011.

Buccan

  • 350 S. County Rd., Palm Beach, 561-833-3450

  • Buccan opens for dinner nightly at 5 p.m. Reservations accepted at BuccanPalmBeach.com

Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She covers the local food and dining beat. Follow her on Instagram and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: James Beard Awards: Race includes chef Clay Conley of Buccan restaurant Palm Beach