RESTAURANT NEWS
The 2026 James Beard Awards Just Redrew America’s Dining Map
Winners stretched from Bozeman to Providence, with a broader vision of American dining.
By Eric Barton
7:25 a.m. ET, June 16, 2026
Kalaya
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
The 2026 James Beard Awards scattered awards across the country, landing at a Montana bakery, a Rhode Island bar, a Maine restaurant group, and kitchens in cities that have spent years arguing they deserve more national attention. The big restaurant capitals still won plenty. They just had to share.
That made Monday night’s ceremony in Chicago feel less like a coronation of the usual places and more like a useful snapshot of American dining right now: ambitious, geographically restless, and increasingly difficult to reduce to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Kalaya
Philadelphia had perhaps the clearest claim to a great night. Kalaya, chef Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon’s deeply personal Thai restaurant, won Outstanding Restaurant, while Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakaya took Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. But the national awards kept moving. Dana Street of Portland, Maine, won Outstanding Restaurateur. Wild Crumb in Bozeman took Outstanding Bakery. Loma in Providence was named Best New Bar, and Portland, Oregon’s Scotch Lodge won Outstanding Bar.
The regional winners made the map even more interesting. Some were long overdue: Hooni Kim has spent years defining Korean cooking in New York, and Ryan Roadhouse has been building elaborate Japanese dinners at Nodoguro in Portland for more than a decade.
Hooni Kim
Others felt like recognition arriving just as the rest of the country is learning their names. Penelope Wong grew Yuan Wonton from a Denver food truck. Taylor Montgomery now runs Montgomery Sky Farm outside Asheville. Jacob Potashnick opened Feld in Chicago in 2024 and built its reputation around an unusually long tasting menu. Sarah Thompson’s victory for Casa Playa gave Las Vegas its first regional Best Chef award in 15 years.
Nodoguro
Serigne Mbaye
Some of that wider spread is intentional. In 2018, the James Beard Foundation changed its rules to keep the same winners from repeatedly occupying a category. Under the current eligibility rules, “No Restaurant and Chef Award winner may be placed on the ballot in the same category for five years after winning,” though winners can compete in categories they haven’t previously won. That policy doesn’t manufacture talent in Bozeman, Providence, or Portland. It does, however, force the awards to keep looking for emerging talent—and makes it harder for a familiar circle of chefs and restaurants to dominate year after year.
Penelope Wong
There was another line running through the results. Adrian Torres, a DACA recipient born in Mexico and raised in Houston, won Emerging Chef for Maximo. Serigne Mbaye took Best Chef: South for Dakar NOLA in New Orleans, where Senegalese and Louisiana meet. Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu won Texas for JŪN, a restaurant shaped by their Mexican and Chinese American backgrounds. Immigration was not a side note to the evening. It was part of the story American restaurants told about themselves.
The familiar names still had their turn. Michael Tusk of Quince won Outstanding Chef, and Nancy Silverton received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
But the broader message was harder to miss: American dining no longer has one center. The good news is that the James Beard Awards finally seem less interested in pretending otherwise.
2026 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Winners
National Awards
Outstanding Restaurateur: Dana Street, Fore Street, Scales, Standard Baking Co., and others, Portland, Maine
Outstanding Chef: Michael Tusk, Quince, San Francisco
Outstanding Restaurant: Kalaya, Philadelphia
Emerging Chef: Adrian Torres, Maximo, West University Place, Texas
Best New Restaurant: Lei, New York City
Outstanding Bakery: Wild Crumb, Bozeman, Montana
Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker: Susan Bae, Moon Rabbit, Washington, D.C.
Outstanding Hospitality: Providence, Los Angeles
Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program: Kato, Los Angeles
Outstanding Bar: Scotch Lodge, Portland, Oregon
Best New Bar: Loma, Providence, Rhode Island
Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service: Lee Campbell, Borgo, New York City
Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service: Kevin Diedrich, Pacific Cocktail Haven, San Francisco
Best Chefs by Region
California: Dave Beran, Seline, Santa Monica
Great Lakes: Jacob Potashnick, Feld, Chicago
Mid-Atlantic: Jesse Ito, Royal Sushi & Izakaya, Philadelphia
Midwest: Loryn Nalic, Balkan Treat Box, Webster Groves, Missouri
Mountain: Penelope Wong, Yuan Wonton, Denver
New York State: Hooni Kim, Meju, Queens
Northeast: Evan Hennessey, Stages, Dover, New Hampshire
Northwest and Pacific: Ryan Roadhouse, Nodoguro, Portland, Oregon
South: Serigne Mbaye, Dakar NOLA, New Orleans
Southeast: Taylor Montgomery, Montgomery Sky Farm, Leicester, North Carolina
Southwest: Sarah Thompson, Casa Playa, Las Vegas
Texas: Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, JŪN, Houston
Additional Honors
Humanitarian of the Year: Damián Diaz and Othón Nolasco, No Us Without You LA
Lifetime Achievement: Nancy Silverton
Impact Award honorees: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights; Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen; Sen. Ben Ray Luján; ReFED; Southern Smoke Foundation
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