No Alabama winners at 2023 James Beard Awards
This wasn’t Alabama’s year at the 2023 James Beard Awards.
A year after chef Adam Evans of Birmingham’s Automatic Seafood and Oysters was named Best Chef: South, no chefs or restaurants from Alabama were among the winners at tonight’s James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Bottega, the Italian-inspired, Southern-influence restaurant owned by Frank and Pardis Stitt, had been a finalist in the Outstanding Hospitality category.
That award went to The Quarry in Monson, Maine.
Also, Timothy Hontzas, the chef and owner of Johnny’s Restaurant in Homewood, had been a finalist for Best Chef: South this year, but he said in an interview with AL.com last month that he was told in an email from the James Beard Foundation that he had been disqualified after an independent investigation determined it was “more likely than not” that he had violated the foundation’s Code of Ethics.
The investigation followed anonymous accusations that Hontzas had yelled at his staff and customers, Hontzas said at the time.
Despite his disqualification, Hontzas was still included among the finalists announced tonight by Best Chef: South presenter Monti Carlo.
“So, this next category, Best Chef: South, has brought more drama than a Mariah Carey concert,” Carlo, a Puerto Rican chef and TV personality, joked. “But we’re here for it.”
The Best Chef: South winner was Natalia Vallejo of Cocina al Fondo in San Juan, P.R. Vallejo is the first Puetro Rican chef to win a James Beard Award, Carlo said.
For the full list of 2023 James Beard Award winners, go here.
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