The James Beard Award 2022 Winners Are Here
The James Beard Awards are back for the first time since 2019, honoring the nation's top restaurants and chefs. Mashama Bailey, a chef fine dining establishment the Grey in Savannah, Georgia, took home the top prize for Outstanding Chef.
"Black and brown folks, immigrants, mom-and-pop shops have been bubbling underneath the surface of this industry, working hard for a long time establishing our place in American food. I stand on the backs of many of them," Bailey said in her acceptance speech. "Today a little Black girl or a little Black boy can see themselves as a future Outstanding Chef." Beard previously won two James Beard Awards: Best Chef of the Southeast in 2018 and 2019.
Other individual winners include Edgar Rico of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, who won Emerging Chef; Don Guerra of Barrio Bread in Tucson, Arizona, who won Outstanding Baker; and Warda Bouguettaya of Warda Pâtisserie in Detroit, Michigan, who won for Outstanding Pastry Chef. There were also 12 regional awards given for best chefs around the country.
The Outstanding Restaurant award went to Chai Pani, in Asheville, North Carolina. The name "Chai Pani" translates literally to "tea and water" and features Indian street snacks.
"Restaurants are so much greater than the sum of what's inside the four walls. A restaurant has the power to transform—transform the people that work there, transform the people that come in, transform the communities we're in, transform society" Meherwan Irani, chef and founder at Chai Pani, said. "Restaurants can transform the world.
The Best New Restaurant award went to Owamni in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Owamni, owned by chef Sean Sherman and Dana Thompson, is notable for being a restaurant exclusively dedicated to Indigenous cuisine.
"People of color everywhere have been affected by colonialism, and we just went through centuries of racist bullshit," Sherman said in his acceptance speech. "This is showing that we can get through that, that we’re still here. Our people are here, our ancestors are proud tonight. We’re doing something different. We’re putting health on the table, we’re putting culture on the table, and we’re putting our stories on the table. We hope that one day we can find Native American restaurants in every single city."
Sean Sherman, aka the Sioux Chef, previously won James Beard Awards for Best American Cookbook in 2018 and a leadership award in 2019.
Other 2022 restaurant winners include Cúrate, in Asheville, North Caroline, for Outstanding Hospitality; Julep, in Houston, Texas for Outstanding Bar Program; and The Four Horsemen in Brooklyn, New York for Outstanding Wine Program.
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