Virtue, Kasama take home big wins at James Beard Awards in Chicago
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Chicago took home two James Beard Awards on Monday, with Virtue chef de cuisine Damarr Brown and Kasama chefs Genie Kwon and Tim Flores winning in the city that once again played host to what many consider the Oscars of the culinary industry.
Brown won the first award of the night, as the 2023 Emerging Chef, competing against chefs from Bridgetown Roti in Los Angeles, Dakar NOLA in New Orleans, Brooklyn’s Clover Hill and Her Place Supper Club in Philadelphia.
“To my team who stands beside me daily, I wish each of you were standing with me now, because we achieved all of this together,” Brown said in his acceptance speech. “To the women who raised me, they were my first examples of kindness, generosity and patience — which all happen to be virtues.”
Brown also thanked Virtue executive chef Erick Williams, who won his own James Beard Award in 2022 for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Brown worked under Williams at the nationally acclaimed restaurant mk for seven years before working at the Alinea Group restaurant Roister for two years. He reunited with Williams to open Virtue in 2018.
“I’ve always felt that it’s extremely difficult to do something if you don’t see anyone who looks like you doing it,” Brown said. “So I’d like to thank chef Erick Williams. For the last 13 years, you have been that example for me. I stand because you stood.”
The regional Best Chef: Great Lakes award also went to Chicagoans this year, as Kwon and Flores were named the top chefs in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
“We have incredible team members, and they’re just good people that want to take care of people, and everything has fallen into place because of them,” Kwon said, tears flowing freely. She also thanked Flores, her husband and business partner, and their puppy, Longganisa.
As for Flores, he said he never expected the Filipino food he grew up eating would bring him to this point.
“To be recognized for cooking my mom’s food is insane,” he said. “I never thought we’d be cooking Filipino food until we opened Kasama.”
Previously, they were the pastry chef and chef de cuisine, respectively, at the Michelin two-star restaurant Oriole.
And as for what the award will mean for Kasama, “It means we can grow as a team,” Flores said. “It will help us in the future and push forward and allow our team to keep doing what we love.”
Diana Dávila of Mi Tocaya Antojeria was also up for the Best Chef: Great Lakes regional category, as were Detroit’s Omar Anani (Saffron De Twah), Andy Hollyday (Selden Standard) and Sarah Welch (Marrow).
While Dávila had started off the night hoping for a win, she also noted the effect attending the Beards had.
“I’ve met so many incredible people tonight and the world seems so much smaller,” she said ahead of the award ceremony.
Two other Chicago restaurants up for awards — Obelix was among 10 nominees for Best New Restaurant, and Sepia was nominated for Outstanding Hospitality — did not come away with wins. Kann, a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, won Best New Restaurant, and Maine restaurant The Quarry won the Outstanding Hospitality award.
Last year, Kasama was nominated for Best New Restaurant, which ultimately went to Owamni, an Indigenous-focused restaurant in Minneapolis.
Virtue and Kasama have been consistently celebrated and honored since their respective debuts in 2018 and 2020.
Kasama introduced its 13-course tasting menu dinner a year after opening as a takeout-only spot for breakfast and lunch. In 2021, it received the Tribune’s sole “outstanding” four-star review, before going on to receive a Michelin star in 2022 and a smattering of other accolades.
At the start of 2019, former Tribune critic Phil Vettel declared Virtue “excellent” and Williams was named Chef of the Year in the Tribune’s annual Dining Awards in 2020. Virtue was also named a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand recipient, which the guide designates as offering high-quality food at affordable prices.
Brown has also become a well-known chef in his own right; on the 19th season of “Top Chef,” he came in fourth place and was declared the fan favorite.
Two additional Chicagoans won James Beard Media Awards over the weekend; drinks journalist Emma Janzen and Toby Maloney, head mixologist at The Violet Hour, won a Media Award for “The Bartender’s Manifesto: How to Think, Drink & Create Cocktails Like a Pro,” in the category of beverage books with recipes.
It’s Janzen’s second Beard Award in as many years, as the author won in 2022 for “The Way of the Cocktail,” which she cowrote with Julia Momosé, bar and creative director of Kumiko.
Beyond Chicago, the awards this year marked an expansion of recognition for Midwest chefs and restaurants, with nominees from Detroit, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Cleveland and Minneapolis.
Madison chefs Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger won for their restaurant Fairchild in the Best Chef: Midwest category, which includes restaurants in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker made a surprise visit to the ceremony. He thanked Chicago’s newly inaugurated mayor, along with the James Beard Foundation, Choose Chicago and Illinois Restaurant Association.
He praised Chicago as one of the most “vibrant, diverse and mouthwateringly delicious food cities in the world.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson also spoke at the start of the night.
“How about this amazing moment,” he said. He praised the city’s five-star dining restaurants and also the humble hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches.
Last year marked the return of the event after the James Beard Foundation canceled its awards for the first two years of the pandemic amid a reckoning with a lack of diversity among its would-be winners in 2020.
The foundation underwent an audit of its judging practices, pledging to become more equitable with the return of its awards in 2022.
Last week, The New York Times published a report into the foundation’s investigatory process created in 2021 as part of those changes, along with an ethics committee and tip line. At least one chef was disqualified this year as a result of the investigations, the Times reported.
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