The annual James Beard Awards are back for another year, featuring several nominees from Wisconsin and Milwaukee.
Highlighting the list of 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards semifinalists — announced by the James Beard Foundation on Wednesday — is Gregory León, owner and operator Spanish- and Portuguese-inspired Amilinda in downtown Milwaukee, as one of 20 culinary artists from across the country in the running for Outstanding Chef (presented by Hilton). He joins 10 other Wisconsin chefs named to the national list of contenders for what’s considered among the industry’s most prestigious recognitions of culinary talent.
The majority of that group, which includes five chefs from Milwaukee, is nominated for the regional honor of Best Chef Midwest. They include:
- Ross Bachhuber and Samuel Ek of Odd Duck in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood
- Dan Jacobs and Dan Van Rite of EsterEv, soon to reopen in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood
- Kyle Knall of Birch on Milwaukee’s Lower East Side
- Lisa Carlson and Carrie Summer of Chef Shack Bay City in Pierce County
- Sean Pharr of Mint Mark in Madison
In addition, Bryce Stevenson of Miijim, an indigenous restaurant in La Pointe, is nominated for Emerging Chef (presented by S.Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water); Syovata Edari of CocoVaa Chocolatier in Madison is nominated for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker; and Pasture and Plenty also in Madison is nominated for Outstanding Hospitality (presented by American Airlines).
As a whole, Wisconsin’s restaurant industry received a total of nine nominations for James Beard Awards this year, compared to eight in 2023 and 12 in 2022.
Credit: Kevin Miyazaki
It’s not the first James Beard nomination for several of these local semifinalists. This is the fifth consecutive year Jacobs and Van Rite, who also own Dan Dan in the Third Ward, have made the list. León, who opened Amilinda at 315 E. Wisconsin Ave. in 2015 after a career working in restaurants in San Fransisco and Madrid, Spain, was nominated for Best Chef Midwest the past two years and advanced as a finalist in 2023. In 2022, Birch’s Kyle Knall was nominated for Outstanding Chef and Odd Duck for Outstanding Restaurant.
The last time Milwaukee’s dining scene claimed a James Beard victory was in 2022, when Dane Baldwin, owner and chef at The Diplomat on Brady Street, was named Best Chef Midwest. He sits among a small group of local chefs to receive the honor, including Sanford D’Amato, Adam Siegel, Paul Bartolotta and Justin Aprahamian.
Finalists for the 2024 program will be announced on April 3, with winners unveiled at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
