If you aren’t familiar, the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards are one of the most influential and prestigious awards that a Chef, Restaurateur, or Restaurant can obtain in any given year. Unlike the Michelin Guide, the James Beard Awards are not a rating system for restaurants or meant to instruct consumers on how to find new spots to eat at, rather, the James Beard Awards focus solely on U.S. dining and celebrate a singular winner in each of the categories they’ve created.
To put it simply, you can think of the James Beard Awards as the Academy Awards for food in the United States, and in case you still need a little clarity, the main character of the popular cooking-related show “The Bear“, star-chef “Carmen Berzatto” was an apparent winner of James Beard Award, a nod to how great of a chef he is in the show.
10 Detroit area Chefs and Restaurants that are 2024 James Beard Award Semifinalists
Below are all 10 semi-finalists from Detroit’s food scene that made the cut as semifinalists for a James Beard Award along with the category in which they are competing. It’s important to consider that as semi-finalists, they are on the shortlist for each category among which only a handful will be nominated as finalists. The nominees for the finalists in each category will be announced on Wednesday, April 9th, and the winners of each James Beard Award category will be announced during the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 10th.
Outstanding Restaurateur
- Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, Baobab Fare, Detroit, MI
Outstanding Restaurant
- Selden Standard, Detroit, MI
Emerging Chef
- Rocky Coronado, Nepantla, Detroit, MI
Best New Restaurant
- Alpino, Detroit, MI
Outstanding Bakery
- Shatila Bakery, Dearborn, MI
Outstanding Hospitality
- AlTayeb Restaurant, Dearborn, MI
Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- Folk, Detroit, MI
Best Chef: Great Lakes Region
- Doug Hewitt, Freya, Detroit, MI
- Hajime Sato, Sozai, Clawson, MI
- John Yelinek, Ladder 4 Wine Bar, Detroit, MI