James Beard Awards

“Fewer and fewer people just don’t know farmers, and so they don’t understand what goes into it,” says Abra Berens, who has received national attention for both her produce-focused cookbooks and her literal farm-to-table cooking at a farm in southwest Michigan.

The semifinalists for the James Beard Awards, one of the food industry's biggest recognitions in America, have been announced. Chicago has eleven nominees amongst them, four fewer than last year. 

Maya-Camille Broussard loved eating 7-Up cake at her cousin's after school. Now the James Beard Award-nominated baker, whose Justice of the Pies bakery runs culinary workshops for children and donates food, shares a recipe for that childhood treat.

Just a little over a year after it opened, Nobody's Darling already has a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Bar Program. Co-owners Angeles Barnes and Renauda Riddle share the story of their Andersonville cocktail bar, along with the recipe for their Southside Lychee Martini.

The list of semifinalists for the James Beard Awards has been released, and fifteen Chicago people and places in the food industry are on it. Meet them here.