JBF Awards: Chef and Restaurant nominees; Lifetime Achievement; Humanitarian of the Year and Leadership

Today the James Beard Foundation announced its nominees for the 2022 Restaurant and Chef awards. These awards honor culinary talent across the United States, with nominations in each of twelve regions. The winners of the awards in all categories will be announced during a ceremony (and live-tweeted) on June 13, 2022, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The chefs nominated for these JBF awards represent both up-and-coming talent as well as those well established in their careers. In addition to the twelve regional lists for chefs, there are a handful of nationwide categories including Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Pastry Chef, Outstanding Restaurateur, and Outstanding Restaurant. The article linked above includes all nominees in every category.

A few chef nominees have written cookbooks, including Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef), Amanda Cohen, Katie Button, Melissa M. Martin, and Sheldon Simeon, who wrote one of my favorite cookbooks of 2021, Cook Real Hawai’i. Speaking of cookbooks, the nominees for the JBF Media Awards which, includes Book, Broadcast Media, and Journalism, will be announced on Wednesday, April 27 at an in-person event in New York City. This represents the first time the JBF is holding an event solely for the media nominee announcement.

JBF also announced the winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Humanitarian of the Year Award and Leadership Awards (see link for full list of Leadership Award winners).

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an individual whose lifetime body of work has had a positive and long-lasting impact on the way we eat, cook, and/or think about food in America. This year’s winner is TV cooking show host, cookbook author, and master chef Martin Yan.

The Humanitarian of the Year Award is given to an individual working in the food realm who has given selflessly and worked tirelessly to better the lives of others and society at large. This year’s winner is James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, culinary historian, and filmmaker Grace Young for her work to save America’s Chinatowns amid Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.