The James Beard Awards today announced the finalists for the 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards — and Southern California did not fare well. In fact, the region's chefs and restaurants did terribly.
First, the good news! Gusto Bread in Long Beach was nominated for Outstanding Bakery while Strong Water in Anaheim was nominated for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. In the Best Chef: California category, Lord Maynard Llera of Kuya Lord got a nod for his fantastic Filipino fare as did Tara Monsod of San Diego's Animae.
And now the bad news…
Of our 18 local semi-finalists, only four made it to the final list of nominees, weeding out metal-themed pop-up Evil Cooks, Jihee Kim's Korean banchan spot Perilla, Alfonso "Poncho" Martinez's Oaxacan spot Poncho's Tlayudas and Rashida Holmes' Caribbean pop-up Bridgetown Roti, among many others.
Poltergeist, La Parolaccia, Yang's Kitchen, Barra Santos, Esters Wine Shop & Bar, Luv2eat Thai Bistro, Jeremy Fox of Birdie G's, Danielle Duran-Zecca and Alessandro Zecca of Amiga Amore, Nicole Rucker of Fat + Flour, Greg Dulan of Dulan's Soul Food Kitchen and Dima Habibeh of Ammatoli were also culled before the final round.
Here are the four Southern California finalists for the 2024 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards. You can see the full list of the 2024 nominees on the Beard Foundation's website.
A customer peruses the baked goods at Gusto Bread in Long Beach. Photo by Elina Shatkin.
Outstanding Bakery
- The Burque Bakehouse, Albuquerque, NM
- Gusto Bread, Long Beach, CA
- JinJu Patisserie, Portland, OR
- Mel the Bakery, Hudson, NY
- ZU Bakery, Portland, ME
Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- Lula Drake Wine Parlour, Columbia, SC
- The Morris, San Francisco, CA
- Strong Water Anaheim, Anaheim, CA
- Tail Up Goat, Washington, D.C.
- Waxlight Bar à Vin, Buffalo, NY
Best Chef: California
- Geoff Davis, Burdell, Oakland, CA
- Rogelio Garcia, Auro, Calistoga, CA
- Lord Maynard Llera, Kuya Lord, Los Angeles, CA
- Tara Monsod, Animae, San Diego, CA
- Buu "Billy" Ngo, Kru, Sacramento, CA