Best Chef: California
Jonathan Bautista, Kingfisher, San Diego, CA
Rocio Camacho, Rocio’s Mexican Kitchen, Bell Gardens, CA
Val M. Cantu, Californios, San Francisco, CA
Gilberto Cetina Jr., Holbox, Los Angeles, CA
Kyle and Katina Connaughton, SingleThread, Healdsburg, CA
Brandon Hayato Go, Hayato, Los Angeles, CA
Srijith Gopinathan, Ettan, Palo Alto, CA
Matthew Kammerer, The Harbor House Inn, Elk, CA
Intu-on Kornnawong, Jo’s Modern Thai, Oakland, CA
Andrew and Michelle Muñoz, Moo’s Craft Barbecue, Los Angeles, CA
Justin Pichetrungsi, Anajak Thai, Sherman Oaks, CA
Michael Reed, Poppy & Seed, Anaheim, CA
Daisy Ryan, Bell’s, Los Alamos, CA
Carlos Salgado, Taco María, Costa Mesa, CA
Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong, Jitlada, Los Angeles, CA
James Syhabout, Commis, Oakland, CA
Craig Takehara, Binchoyaki, Sacramento, CA
Pim Techamuanvivit, Kin Khao, San Francisco, CA
Robbie Wilson, Le Fantastique, San Francisco, CA
Akira Yoshizumi, Sushi Yoshizumi, San Mateo, CA
Nice list.
Jo’s Modern Thai is great but best chef in California? Not even in Oakland.
First mention of Ettan on this board.
la finalists
Outstanding Chef
Niki Nakayama, n/naka, Los Angeles, CA
Outstanding Restaurateur
Greg Dulan, Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen, Dulan’s on Crenshaw, and Dulanville, Los Angeles, CA
Emerging Chef
Rashida Holmes, Bridgetown Roti, Los Angeles, CA
Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker
Margarita Manzke, Republique, Los Angeles, CA
Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
Ototo, Los Angeles, CA
Best Chef: California
Gilberto Cetina Jr., Holbox, Los Angeles, CA
Brandon Hayato Go, Hayato, Los Angeles, CA
Justin Pichetrungsi, Anajak Thai, Los Angeles, CA
Carlos Salgado, Taco Maria, Costa Mesa, CA
¡Nice!
The full list of finalists from across the country can be found here, and the list of finalists from San Francisco can be found here — though with LA and Orange County basically running the table in this year’s Best Chef: California category, SF would really have to pull an upset to win there. The winners will be announced on June 5, 2023 in a live event at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
From Eater’s Farley Elliot. I don’t know how he has that take when previous years have shown the opposite. It seems the more stacked LA is in a certain category, the less chance it has of winning. San Franciscans have a larger voting body and they’ll likely just vote for themselves which means all of those votes are going to just two restaurants: Singlethread or Californios. That’s my prediction. But then we’ll have to see who makes the finalist shortlist.
January’s long semifinalists list had ten each from Northern and Southern California, and only one from the former group made the final five, so it seems like he was pretty off-base on that one.
Jonathan Bautista, Kingfisher, San Diego, CA
Rocio Camacho, Rocio’s Mexican Kitchen, Bell Gardens, CA
Gilberto Cetina Jr., Holbox, Los Angeles, CA
Brandon Hayato Go, Hayato, Los Angeles, CA
Andrew and Michelle Muñoz, Moo’s Craft Barbecue, Los Angeles, CA
Justin Pichetrungsi, Anajak Thai, Sherman Oaks, CA
Michael Reed, Poppy & Seed, Anaheim, CA
Daisy Ryan, Bell’s, Los Alamos, CA
Carlos Salgado, Taco María, Costa Mesa, CA
Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong, Jitlada, Los Angeles, CA
Val M. Cantu, Californios, San Francisco, CA
Kyle and Katina Connaughton, SingleThread, Healdsburg, CA
Srijith Gopinathan, Ettan, Palo Alto, CA
Matthew Kammerer, The Harbor House Inn, Elk, CA
Intu-on Kornnawong, Jo’s Modern Thai, Oakland, CA
James Syhabout, Commis, Oakland, CA
Craig Takehara, Binchoyaki, Sacramento, CA
Pim Techamuanvivit, Kin Khao, San Francisco, CA
Robbie Wilson, Le Fantastique, San Francisco, CA
Akira Yoshizumi, Sushi Yoshizumi, San Mateo, CA
californios didn’t make the finalist cut.
My mistake. Thought this was semifinals. Just SInglethread then. So SF voters are going to be heavily pushing for Singlethread. The rest of socal splits the vote.
Another way to look at is that the votes mostly went to more accessible places. SingleThread is the only Michelin three-star and the only place that costs $425 before tax and tip.
Healdsburg is a long way from San Francisco. I don’t think of it as any more local than Elk or LA.
I’ve only heard of four of them.
Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award
“Poncho’s Tlayudas, a window to Oaxaca, serves one of L.A.’s defining dishes”; “At Chinatown’s Pearl River Deli, the menu is always changing — and worth chasing”; “Anajak Thai is our 2022 Restaurant of the Year”
Bill Addison
Los Angeles Times
he did
When I hear “Best Chef” I take that literally as in technical ability. Benu and Atomix are known as some of the best restaurants in the world. I don’t doubt the food at Anajak and Justin’s ability to cook. To me the best is like the MVP or GOAT talk. You know like Jordan with 6 rings. I like it when someone is so dedicated and good at their craft they just dominate the competition. Maybe my perspective is wrong on this or Beard is trying to be more fair. Probably nuances that I didn’t pick up on.
I wouldn’t take it literally. James Beard right now is in a weird place, and the awards, at least for me, don’t really mean much at all. Awards lists like this in general, especially when they take on a certain gravitas and also corporate backing, hold business and media sway but not so much otherwise. (And lists like this in general with pronouncements on “Best” are fundamentally and fatally flawed, in my opinion).
However, I am happy for any winners and understand what it means for their business, career, and personal achievement. People do deserve some form of recognition and I understand that prestigious forms of validation can be very gratifying.
I think that the disservice of James Beard’s recent controversies is actually to the winners - past, current, and future - because James Beard’s diminished credibility then brings up questions of whether a winner (who very well may be deserving) was/is actually deserving. Again, I’m not saying that the winners aren’t deserving, but there’s a cloud of doubt over the awards in general because of the way the James Beard Foundation shot themselves in the foot in the mishandling of the 2020 awards.
Long story short, perhaps their basic intentions were in the right place, but the James Beard Foundation canceled some awards and requested a revote because they believed that the winners did not represent enough diversity, then gave jumbled and contradictory statements about what they knew during the process. They were not supposed to know the winners, but then usurped their stated ethics process to ascertain that the winners list was not a good look, then canceled those winners to get a revote in hopes to make the list more diverse.
Indeed, there ought to likely be more diversity in awards simply because talent is diverse on the basis of meritocracy, and the awarding bodies often have a myopic view in terms of knowledge, privileging a narrow form of knowledge (in the case of Michelin, how the hell is Masa 3* but somewhere like Nihonbashi Kakigaracho Sugita only 2*. Is Omakase SF really the same level as Sushi Arai?). But not diversity for diversity’s sake and acting like awards are meritocracy when in effect they’re not.
Perhaps their intentions were in the right place - yes, let’s understand that excellence is found in many places and that past views on what is “best” were probably very narrow. But you don’t do that by canceling winners and request a revote because the winners list looks bad (even when they’re not supposed to know who the winners would’ve been). And don’t violate your own ethics rules.
Long story short: congratulations to the winners, I just wish that their victories were not cheapened by the James Beard Foundation’s self-imposed recent controversy. And, I wouldn’t take the James Beard distinctions literally.
A simple start would be to replace “Best” with “Excellent,” but of course no awards list wants to do that.
At least to Eater’s credit, they changed their 38 “Best” to 38 “Essential.” I don’t always agree with Eater, but bravo on that, because otherwise 38 “Best” becomes a murky rotation of the month that loses credibility.
I treat it like the Grammy’s. Be excited for anyone you like who wins, but disregard it entirely otherwise because they get it wrong more often than not.
Margarita Manzke of République certainly deserves best pastry chef. Too bad they can’t spell it.
i can remember back about 12 years ago when anthony bourdain (RIP 5 years ago tomorrow) got on their case for the…doughy results - pretty much all white. i’d hate to think that some deserving caucasian chef got left off the 2023 list to meet quota.