You can call them the Oscars of the restaurant industry. For more than 30 years, the James Beard Foundation has recognized chefs, bartenders, and restaurants in America for their outstanding achievements in the culinary world.
The foundation announced finalists in March in 23 categories, including best restaurant, best beverage program, and best regional chef, which takes a closer look at exceptional talent shaping what good food means in diverse communities around the country. This group also raises the bar when it comes to equity and sustainability and represents the best of the best in the culinary world right now.
A farm-to table chef does communal dining in Idaho, a kaiseki chef features hyper-seasonal dishes in Las Vegas, and a Thai chef offers traditional dishes with sauces made from scratch.
Winners will be announced in June in Chicago. Until then, get to know eight finalists from around the country—they’re the ones changing the face of food in America.
Kris Komori, KIN (Boise, Idaho)
Kris Komori is the head chef and co-owner of KIN, a restaurant in Boise, Idaho that puts the community at the center of nearly every aspect of its experience.
Boise keeps showing up for the rotating prix-fixe menu that moves with local farmers’ seasonal bounty, communal seating, and quarterly fundraisers for local farmers and purveyors. “We’ve gotten to watch Boise grow as Boise has watched us grow,” Komori says. “It’s supporting them and watching their businesses grow.”
Komori was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Oregon, where he began working in kitchens after initially studying biology. That stoked in him a reverence for farm-to-table cooking that never left. He and his wife Ally Komori moved to Boise ten years ago, returning to where Ally grew up and where she began a medical residency at the VA hospital.
The chef worked at farmers’ markets, forging morels for a local farm, before helping open a restaurant called State & Lemp, where he met business partner Remi Mcmanus. Komori, Mcmanus, and much of the crew from State & Lemp built KIN together between 2021 and 2022, quickly turning it into a local favorite.
This year marks Komori’s fifth recognition from the James Beard Foundation and his second at KIN. He was previously a regional best chef semifinalist from 2016 to 2018 for State & Lemp and in 2022 for KIN.
“It’s a cool sign for Boise and for Idaho because for a while it felt like you couldn’t compete against places with bigger markets,” Komori says. “It feels like it speaks to the growth and maturity of Idaho and Boise’s food scene.”
Kaoru Azeuchi, KAISEKI YUZU (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Kaoru Azeuchi realized his dream of opening a restaurant in the US after 15 years of rigorous training in Japan and three years of learning French cooking techniques.
That served as the launchpad for Yuzu Kaisei, a traditional Japanese restaurant in Las Vegas that he debuted in 2014. Locals return here for the monthly rotating menu showcasing a variety of ingredients that are in season, and it has been consistently recognized as one of the best restaurants in Vegas.
Azeuchi moved the restaurant to a new location in 2020 and renamed the establishment Kaiseki Yuzu. “This has been my longtime dream and to see it happen is amazing,” Azeuchi says.
Valentine Howell, Krasi (Boston, Massachusetts)
Born and raised in Boston, Valentine Howell is the son of a Jamaican chef father and a Sicilian mother who inspired in him a love of food and of cooking.
Before leading the kitchen at Boston modern Greek favorite Krasi, Howell worked at several legendary local hotspots including Legal Seafood, Locke Ober, Tremont647, and the kitchens of Fenway Park.
Despite his stellar resume, Howell believes it was a few “moments of pure fate” that brought him national recognition. The first pivotal moment arrived in high school when his mother’s near-death experience pushed him to abandon a future in football and the military to pursue a career in cooking, so he could stay close to home.
The second moment arrived a few years ago. After questioning his passion in the kitchen and struggling to find the right creative outlet to cook, Howell ran into old friend Kayla Padillia, now one of the owners of Krasi.
She didn’t say much at the time but called Howell a few days later to tell him about her new project. The next thing Howell knew, he was doing a trial run in the Krasi kitchen, and the team loved everything he prepared.
He decided to give it his all instead of leaving the industry and soon was receiving positive reviews from Conde Nast Traveler and the Food Network, among others.
“There were a lot of pivotal moments in my life when I could have gone left and I took the road less traveled,” Howell says. “I’m proud of the fact that I didn’t. I’m where I am supposed to be in life right now.”
Alex Perry and Kumo Omori, Vestige (Ocean Springs, Mississippi)
Missouri native Alex Perry’s interests initially drew him to sports, punk rock, heavy metal, and epidemiology, but an obsession with the popular Iron Chef TV series led him to culinary school followed by a seven-year stint at Mobile, Alabama restaurant NoJa.
While in Alabama, Perry met his now wife Kumi Omori. Originally from Iwate, Japan, Omori had come to Mobile to study graphic design and started working part-time at NoJa.
A personal partnership soon blossomed into a professional one when the couple debuted Vestige in 2013. Their rotating tasting menu is driven by local, seasonal produce and influenced by Omori’s Japanese heritage.
Now, Vestige is a bonafide hit, having nabbed best regional chef nominations from the James Beard Awards in 2019 and 2022 along with winning Country Roads Magazine’s best small town chefs award in 2020.
Oscar Amador, Amina by EDO (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Oscar Amador’s Catalonian upbringing has defined a career of cooking with Spanish flair in a variety of contexts.
Originally from a town outside of Barcelona, Amador trained at the prestigious Hofmann BCN Chef School in Barcelona before staging at three-MICHELIN-star restaurants El Bulli and El Racó de Can Fabes.
Amador appeared destined for success and in subsequent years went on to lead kitchens at popular local restaurants including Ajo Negro, Tape Art, and A Mano.
Soon, Las Vegas was calling, and the chef couldn’t pass the opportunity to cook at Le Cirque, a Vegas offshoot of the famed NYC restaurant. That paved the way for Amador to go out on his own, and he did just that with the launch of a catering business and the beloved EDO Tapas & Wine.
Amina is a reflection of all of his experiences and a testament to his continued devotion to Spanish cooking—what’s more, diners and critics agree.
“To be nominated and then to be a finalist—it’s an incredible honor for both me as a chef and for my team at Anima,” Amador says. “It means so much to be recognized in this way.”
Andrew Black, Grey Sweater (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Andrew Black draws on a range of culinary traditions for his avant-garde tasting menu at Grey Sweater in Oklahoma City.
At the restaurant, menus aren’t provided. Diners choose the number of courses and the kitchen surprises with the rest, typically leaning into a range of modern cooking techniques such as foams, popping boba, freeze-dried elements, and more.
Born in Jamaica to an Indo-Jamaican family, Black cooked at resorts in Jamaica and staged at fine-dining restaurants in Europe before moving to the US in 2001.
Since 2017, Black has emerged as a formidable Oklahoma City chef and restaurateur with the openings of Parisian cafe-style restaurant La Baguette Deep Deuce and casual New American spot Black Walnut (both part of his restaurant group Culinary Edge).
Grey Sweater is arguably his most acclaimed restaurant in Oklahoma City so far. His efforts produced a James Beard regional chef semifinalist nod last year that has culminated in a nomination this year.
Benchawan Jabthong Painter, Street to Kitchen (Houston, Texas)
Benchawan Jabthong Painter first began cooking in her grandmother’s neighborhood restaurant in Central Thailand, where she watched her fisherman grandfather and farmer cousins bring home fresh ingredients to use for the menu every day.
The chef and her husband Graham Painter moved to Houston in 2015 and debuted Street to Kitchen five years later with a focus on “unapologetically authentic Thai food,” Benchawan says.
That means everything is made from scratch and the restaurant never uses any pre-made sauces or curry pastes. “Don’t expect to get chicken in your pad Thai,” Benchawan says (the dish is typically made with shrimp).
Diners and critics have rewarded Painter for this dedication to recreating foods from her homeland. She was recognized by a rising star chef of the year award as well as a restaurant of the year award in 2022 from Culture Map, a coveted acknowledgement from the Houston restaurant community.
See the full list of the 2023 James Beard Nominees here and check back on the OpenTable blog on June 5 for the winners.
Noelle Chun is a freelance journalist who writes about food, cocktails, and wine in Honolulu and San Francisco. Follow her on Instagram at @noellechun.
