Hawaii chefs miss cut for James Beard Awards
No Hawaii chefs survived the cut from semifinalist to finalist for the 2016 James Beard Foundation Awards.
Foundation officials announced the finalists in chef, restaurant and media categories in San Francisco this morning.
Honolulu chefs Michelle Karr-Ueoka and Ed Kenney were named among semifinalists for the awards in February, amid difficult odds.
Kenney was nominated in the Best Chef in the Western region, while Karr-Ueoka was nominated in a national category, Best Pastry Chef.
Restaurateurs coming to Hawaii including Michael Mina and b. patisserie received nominations in the Outstanding Service and Outstanding Baker categories, respectively.
The last Hawaii chef and restaurateur to win a Beard Award for best chef was George Mavrothalassitis of Chef Mavro in 2003. At that time Hawaii chefs and restaurants competed in the foundation’s Pacific Northwest category, but the islands are now included in the Western region, with California and Nevada.
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The chef and restaurant winners will be announced at an annual gala fundraiser in Chicago May 2, while the media awards will be announced next month.
9 responses to “Hawaii chefs miss cut for James Beard Awards”
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Now days a lot of competitors in any competition are getting snubbed. Food, show business what have you. Pretty much comes down to favortism and racism.
Why would you assume that?
it comes down to more innovative, creative Chefs elsewhere. Hawai’i Chefs with the exception of a few, esp. Chef Mavro etc. are kind of stuck in the past. An article attached reveals the semi finalists for this year. Check out these chef’s websites and see how they seperate themsleves form Hawai’i’s Chefs. One of the best Hawai’i Chefs is Lee Ann Wong who hails from NYC. She has the most potential upcoming. She has the pedigree and the creativity.
http://www.eater.com/2016/2/17/11031822/james-beard-award-2016-restaurant-chef-semifinalists
As much as I enjoy Lee Anne Wong’s food, having gone to Koko Head Cafe several times and checked out a number of her pop-ups prior to her partnership with Kevin and Denise Hanney, I would say she’s got some solid skills. However, I would say also that Ed Kenney, Wade Ueoka, Michelle Karr-Ueoka, Johnathan Mizukami, Sheldon Simeon (also a Top Chef contestant, like Lee Anne Wong) and Andrew Le are putting out food that easily are at the same level or higher than what Chef Wong is doing. Besides, Wong is handicapped because she’s doing brunch fare, what with the closing of Hale Ohuna. And Hawaii’s chefs will be bolstered by Chris Kajioka ((first Vintage Cave chef) and Robynne Maii opening up Senia and Fete in the next several months. It will take only two or three years more to find out for sure if Hawaii chefs are being snubbed by James Beard (Maii is on the 2016 James Beard Book Committee, after all).
Besides, Eater isn’t the best source for food opinion, even if its restaurant editor sits on the juding committee. They’re among the first to fall all over themselves, sighing in celebration of the columbusing of poke on the mainland to poké, and they totally ignore Hawaii’s huge role when it comes to ramen in the US.
What an ignorant post.
“Honolulu chefs Michelle Karr-Ueoka and Ed Kenney were named among semifinalists for the awards …” They were not snubbed. They made it to the semis. Congratulations to Michelle Karr-Ueoka and Ed Kenney.
HERE, HERE!! AMEN!! Just keep cooking!
James Beard and his “Friend” attended a restaurant Grand Opening I hosted in SFO, together with Who’s Who in CA. At that time he was beginning his obvious dementia, in the last years of his life. He had only a few teeth left in his mouth. It was an honor to have him attend. By the same token, NO CHEF should worry that they did not “make-the-cut”. The fact that you’re still in business and still cooking and serving the public–is, in itself, a Grand Testimonial! KUDO’s to you all..
Michelle’s pastry is fabulous. You need to sample her creations @ the MW.