No Restaurant or Chef Medals Awarded This Year to Atlanta’s James Beard Finalists

The James Beard Basis held its annual awards ceremony in Chicago on June 13, and finalists Ticonderoga Membership, chef Kevin Gillespie (Gunshow, Revival), and pastry chef Claudia Martinez of Miller Union represented Atlanta within the Excellent Hospitality, Excellent Restaurateur, and Excellent Pastry Chef classes respectively this 12 months.

Sadly, not one of the three Atlanta finalists have been awarded a coveted James Beard medal, but it surely was nonetheless a celebratory night nonetheless, which marks the return of the “Oscars of the meals world” after the inspiration canceled occasions in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.

Past Gillespie and Martinez, eight different Atlanta cooks have been named semifinalists again in February by the James Beard Basis, together with Mia Orino and Carlo Gan of Filipino restaurant and pop-up Kamayan ATL for Rising Chef, Jason Liang of Brush Sushi Izakaya, Craig Richards of Lyla Lila, and Joey Ward of Southern Belle and Georgia Boy for Greatest Chef Southeast, and Jen Yee for Excellent Pastry Chef. Todd Richards and Joshua Lee have been named semifinalists for Excellent Restaurateur and Midtown restaurant Lyla Lila, co-owned by Craig Richards, was additionally named a semifinalist for Excellent Wine Program.

The unique location of Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina, owned by chef Meherwan Irani, was awarded the medal for Excellent Restaurant. In 2013, Irani opened a second location of the Indian road meals restaurant in Decatur, Georgia, simply east of Atlanta. Irani additionally owns Botiwalla and Nani’s Piri Piri Hen at Ponce Metropolis Market.

Former Atlanta chef Adam Evans took residence the Greatest Chef South award for his Birmingham, Alabama, restaurant Automated Seafood and Oysters. Evans, who labored at each Ford Fry’s the Optimist and chef Jonathan Waxman’s Brezza Cucina in Atlanta, grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He left Brezza Cucina in 2016 to open Automated Seafood along with his spouse and inside designer, Suzanne Humphries Evans, in what was the previous residence of Automated Sprinkler Co. in Birmingham.

Mashama Bailey of critically acclaimed restaurant the Gray in Savannah gained the award for Excellent Chef. Bailey was beforehand awarded a medal in 2019 for Greatest Chef Southeast.

However the Atlanta restaurant group did nab at the very least one James Beard award this 12 months.

In February, soul meals restaurant Busy Bee Cafe was acknowledged by the inspiration with an America’s Classics award. The annual award honors impartial and family-owned eating places all through the nation which can be greater than a decade previous and exhibit “timeless attraction”.

First opened by Lucy Jackson 75 years in the past on Hunter Road (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) within the Vine Metropolis neighborhood, Busy Bee Cafe as soon as served as a gathering place and refueling cease for Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Andrew Younger, and Joseph Lowery. It’s since grown into one in every of Atlanta’s restaurant establishments, recognized for its legendary fried rooster. Busy Bee Cafe is now owned by Tracey Gates, whose household took over the enterprise within the Eighties.

All six of the America’s Classics award winners have been honored in the course of the June 13 ceremony in Chicago.

Disclosure: Some Vox Media employees members are a part of the voting physique for the James Beard Basis Awards.