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An East African eatery in Detroit, longtime family owned Seattle pho shops and a Palestinian chef using ancient cooking techniques in Washington, D.C., are among the dozens of finalists for this year\u2019s prestigious James Beard Awards.<\/p>\n
The culinary world\u2019s equivalent of the Oscars will recognize restaurants and chefs in 22 categories at a ceremony set for Monday in Chicago.<\/p>\n
The nominees cover a diverse range of cuisine and chef experience, a\u00a0recent shift<\/a>\u00a0following turbulent, pandemic-era years for the\u00a0James Beard<\/a> Foundation. The most-anticipated categories include\u00a0awards<\/a>\u00a0for outstanding restaurateur, chef and restaurant.<\/p>\n Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, who fled Burundi about a decade ago and now own Baobab Fare in Detroit, are among five finalists in the outstanding restaurateur category. The couple faced a difficult road as refugees opening a business in the U.S.<\/p>\n Their restaurant\u2019s menu features kuku, pan-fried chicken in a tangy mustard-onion sauce that\u2019s served with fried plantains, stewed yellow beans and coconut rice.<\/p>\n \u201cWe inspire a lot of refugees \u2014 refugees who are coming to this country without hope and one day thinking that they can win this kind of title,\u201d Mamba said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for us, because we want to show people that this world can be equal.\u201d<\/p>\n The James Beard Foundation has bestowed awards since 1991, except in 2020 and 2021 when the organization scrapped them as the restaurant industry was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation was also facing criticism over a lack of racial diversity and allegations about some nominees\u2019 behavior. Foundation officials vowed to improve ethical standards and be more \u201creflective of the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Restaurants<\/a> apply for the awards. Judges, who mostly remain anonymous, try the cuisine before voting. Nominees are reviewed for the food as well as for a behavioral \u201ccode of ethics,\u201d including how employees are treated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking at the whole plate,\u201d said Tanya Holland, chair of the awards committee.<\/p>\n For restaurants, just being a finalist can bring wide recognition and boost business. Restaurant awards have become less common in recent years, giving the James Beard Awards even more weight, said Paul Freedman, a Yale University professor whose expertise includes food history.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really calls attention to restaurants that might not be all that well known outside their region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A Seattle family credited with bringing the first pho shop to the city in the 1980s is also a finalist for outstanding restaurateur with a trio of pho restaurants and their chicken and rice shop called The Boat.<\/p>\n Yenvy Pham, whose parents opened their first restaurant after immigrating from Vietnam, calls a bowl of their pho, with its beefy bone broth and anise and clove aromatics, a \u201csure thing.\u201d They make the soup fresh every day over 24 hours.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s wild,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n The other restaurateur finalists are Chris Viaud with three restaurants in New Hampshire, Hollis Wells Silverman with the Eastern Point Collective that runs several Washington, D.C., restaurants, and Erika and Kelly Whitaker for restaurants in Boulder, Colorado.<\/p>\n