Charlie Mitchell of Clover Hill, the Michelin-starred New American restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, was named best chef in New York Monday night at the James Beard Awards in Chicago.
The awards honor excellence in American cuisine and have been called the “Foodie Oscars.”
Four of the five chefs nominated for Best Chef New York state were in New York City, including Atsushi Kono for his eponymous Chinatown yakitori grill, and Nasim Alikhani of Sofreh, the Prospect Heights Persian restaurant.
Among other New York standouts, well, there weren’t many.
“Not only did New York not sweep this thing, but New York was barely a player,” said Rick Camac, executive director of industry relations for the Institute of Culinary Education.
This year, New York was iced out of many national competitions, including Outstanding Restaurant, Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Bar, and Best New Restaurant.
“Years ago, New York restaurants got a lot of the acclaim, some say most of the acclaim,” Camac said. “I think in a way to broaden the interest, perspective, and fairness of it all, Michelin, James Beard, other publications have clearly widened the spectrum of restaurants they’re looking at.”
Among the national awards, Fariyal Abdullahi of Hav & Mar, the Marcus Samuelsson Swedish Ethiopian restaurant in Chelsea, was nominated for Emerging Chef. And Melba’s, the Central Harlem southern food restaurant, was nominated for Outstanding Hospitality.
In the books category, New Yorkers Sohla El-Waylly and Abi Banlingit both took home prizes.
El-Waylly, formerly of the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, won Best Book (General) for her cookbook “Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook.”
Abi Banlingit won Emerging Voice for her Filipino-American dessert cookbook “Mayumu.”
The award for outstanding restaurant went to Langbaan in Portland, Oregon; Michael Rafidi of Albi in Washington, D.C. was named outstanding chef and the Senegalese restaurant Dakar NOLA in New Orleans was named best new restaurant.
