Four D.C. chefs and restaurants made the list of finalists for the the 2020 James Beard Awards, which were announced Monday via a Twitter livestream.
Tail Up Goat chef and owner Jon Sybert, and Amy Brandwein, the chef and owner at Centrolina, both earned nods in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category.
Pastry chef Paola Velez of Kith & Kin, who also earned a RAMMY Award nomination for Best Pastry Chef earlier in the afternoon, was nominated in the rising star chef category, one of the ceremony’s top honors. Her Kith & Kin colleague, Kwame Onwuachi, won the award last year.
José Andrés’s Spanish eatery Jaleo was nominated for outstanding restaurant—its second year in a row among the finalists.
The announcement for the awards, which recognize the best chefs, restaurants, and other members of the industry across the country, comes after 21 local restaurants and chefs made the list of semifinalists in February. The number of nominations is about on par with the past few years. Five chefs and restaurants earned nods last year, and four were nominated in both 2018 and 2017. Last year, four locals took home awards, an improvement over 2017 and 2018, which resulted in one Washington-based winner each.
Media award nominations went to several Washington Post reporters, including Annie Gowen, for her series on American farmers in the feature reporting category, Tim Carman and Shelly Tan for innovative storytelling, Amy Brittain and Maura Judkis for investigative reporting, M. Carrie Allan for short-form personal essay. Politico’s Catherine Boudreau and Helena Bottemiller Evich were also nominated in the health and wellness category.
Onwuachi, meanwhile, earned a nomination in the book writing category for his acclaimed memoir Notes From a Young Black Chef.
This year’s nominee announcement was originally slated for a March 25 ceremony in Philadelphia to kick off its 30th anniversary, but was postponed due to coronavirus concerns, as cities across the country banned mass gatherings and restaurants took a major hit financially. The award ceremony was due to take place on May 4, but has been delayed until September.
“We’re trying to be really sensitive to the needs of our community at this time,” Clare Reichenbach, the CEO of the James Beard Foundation, said during the announcement. After consulting with chefs and restaurateurs, who said the nominations would be “welcome good news,” they decided to move forward with the announcement.
The full list of nominees is available here. Media awards will be announced in the press and on the James Beard Foundation’s website on May 27, and the rest of the awards will be announced in Chicago on September 25, with more details on the format to come.
