The James Beard Foundation held its 33rd annual awards ceremony on Monday, June 10, in Chicago. Several area restaurants and chefs were finalists, and a trio of New England spots earned accolades.
Portland, Maine, is on the rise as a bakery destination with two James Beard honors. Atsuko Fujimoto from Norimoto Bakery won the Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker award.
Fujimoto thanked the bakery’s six employees — “a golden team,” she said — and reflected on her improbable success: She came to Maine from Tokyo at age 30 without any kitchen experience.
Also in Portland, ZU Bakery won the Outstanding Bakery award.
“It is a mysterious business, this making of bread, and once you are hooked by the miracle of yeast, you will be a bread maker for life,” said owner Barak Olins, quoting James Beard.
Meanwhile, Mystic Pizza is no longer the best-known restaurant in Mystic, Conn. David Standridge from The Shipwright’s Daughter was named Best Chef: Northeast. His restaurant, focusing on locally sourced seafood, opened at the height of the pandemic, in June 2020.
Standridge credited his young kids for his success.
“When they came along is when my perspective as a chef shifted from doing what’s best for me to doing what’s best for the community and next generation, to leave this world a little better than I found it,” he said.
Senegalese restaurant Dakar Nola edged out Dorchester’s Comfort Kitchen in the Best New Restaurant category. Erika Whitaker and Kelly Whitaker from ID EST Hospitality Group in Boulder, Colo., won in the Outstanding Restaurateur category. Chris Viaud from Ansanm, Greenleaf, and Pavilion in Milford and Wolfeboro, N.H., was also a nominee.
Langbaan in Portland, Ore., was named Outstanding Restaurant. Michael Rafidi from Albi in Washington, D.C., was named Outstanding Chef.
Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her @kcbaskin.
