James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Award semifinalists

The James Beard Foundation has just announced its 2018 Restaurant and Chef Award semifinalists. The list recognizes the best new restaurants, established restaurants, chefs, bakers, and bar programs across the United States. Many of the chefs on the list have written outstanding cookbooks, including Hugh Acheson, Joanne Chang, Ashley Christensen, Renee Erickson, Gabrielle Hamilton, David Kinch, Donald Link,  Vikram Sunderam, Jody Williams, Vivian Howard and Alex Stupak. 

According to Eater, this year the JBF added a new criteria regarding chef behavior for judges to consider when choosing semifinalists this year. In correspondence sent to judges earlier this year, the JBF said “If you have concerns about a chef, restaurateur or beverage professional, or about the culture around a restaurant or restaurant group, leave the person or business out of your nominations.”

In mid-March, the JBF will winnow this “long list” down to a shorter list of nominees, and also announce the nominees for Media and Restaurant Design Awards. The nominees will be live-tweeted during an event that is being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 14. Once the cookbook award nominees are announced, we will provide a list for you just as we did for the IACP 2018 Nominees. You can see the complete list of JBF Restaurant and Chef semifinalists on the James Beard Foundation website.