James Beard Awards will now require chefs to show a social justice commitment. Is this enough? A Seattle chef weighs in

For the first time ever, winning the James Beard Awards, long known as the highest honors in the restaurant and food media world, doesn’t just depend on someone’s skill with whisk or words.

The organization that awards the prestigious annual awards has revised its criteria and will now determine whether the candidates have “demonstrated a demonstrated commitment to racial and gender equality, community, environmental sustainability and a culture in which all can thrive”. The James Beard Foundation, which administers the awards, also announced a number of other changes aimed at diversifying their jury committees – a move it ultimately hopes will result in a more diverse group of winners – and after potentially problematic chefs who receive the highest awards in the industry.

The move takes place because the foundation is not only positioning itself as a promoter of American cuisine, as it has for years, but also for social justice in the catering industry.

“Excellence in your craft, whether you’re a chef, restaurateur or writer, is still key,” said Dawn Padmore, vice president for awards, in an interview. “It’s an award program. But what else are we – all of us – doing to create a better industry and community? It is ambitious where we want to go. “

The changes were triggered in part by the controversy surrounding the latest award cycle. In 2020, just before the traditional winners’ announcement, the foundation announced that it was canceling most of this year’s awards program and plans to return in 2022 Industry, causing some in the industry to worry about the look of the self-celebration.

However, later news reports also pointed to behind-the-scenes chaos, with Foundation officials panicking because there were no black winners in any of the 23 categories, according to The New York Times. And reportedly, in the run-up to the awards ceremony, allegations of bad behavior had been raised against some of the potential winners, causing some to take themselves out of the running and cause problems for Foundation staff as they tried to evaluate the charges.

These forces also met in nearby Seattle last year. In April, James Beard Award-winning chef Blaine Wetzel of the Willows Inn on Lummi Island was accused of physical intimidation and verbal abuse, according to The New York Times. In June, James Beard Award-winning chef Edouardo Jordan was accused of sexual misconduct by 15 women in a Seattle Times investigation.

The story led Jordan’s employees to leave his restaurants, which continue to be closed. (In response to a Seattle Times request for comment at the time, the James Beard Foundation “denounced”[d] all forms of abusive behavior and misconduct in the workplace “said the organization is” undergoing an audit to inform the processes and policies that are moving forward “. call on the James Beard Foundation to take action to make restaurants a better place for women and to promote racial and gender equality.

“I am for the changes that [the foundation] for the award criteria, the selection process and the committee, ”said Yang on Thursday. “Is that enough? Well, it seems like it has all the right intentions and goals that it is striving for. The answer to that question will lie in the results of the years to come.”

The coveted awards, named for the food writer and educator who advanced American cooking culture, aren’t just shelf decor: they can seriously improve a chef’s career and restaurant visibility – and the bottom line.

“I think the time for the change was long overdue. However, the way everything has changed due to the pandemic, everyone including chefs, the public and the food industry are ready for the new direction and ready to push the boundaries, ”said Yang, the eighth semi-finalist for the Beard Award was times over the years.

The organization had taken other steps in the past few years to diversify the awards, most of which went to white male chefs over the three decades of the awards program. In 2018, the Jordan in Seattle became the first black chef to win a James Beard Award in the “Best New Restaurant” category for JuneBaby. In 2019, Kwame Onwuachi, head chef at Washington’s now-closed Kith / Kin and author of the memoir “Notes From a Young Black Chef,” won the Rising Star Chef Award. Mashama Bailey was named Best Chef in the Southeast for her restaurant, The Gray, in Savannah, Georgia.

Following the recommendations of an audit, the foundation is taking steps to get more blacks and other minority members on its award committees, and has set a goal that half of its committee members and judges are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color).

To cast a broader net, the committees charged with awarding the cooking and restaurant awards – the awards considered the Oscars of the culinary world – will no longer consist solely of members of the food media. In the future, authors, former restaurateurs and people from outside the industry who are familiar with the gastronomy scene in the various regions could also be there. And previous winners will no longer be automatically included in the evaluation process.

Further optimizations include the lifting of the age limit for the “Rising Star Chef” award and the renaming to “Emerging Chef”.

In what is possibly the biggest shift in the longstanding awards program, participants will no longer be judged solely on their performance – for chefs this would be the dishes that appear on guests’ plates, or for food media their stories and segments. Participants must include a written, video, or audio statement on how their work aligns with the awards mission and the values ​​of justice, sustainability and community.

That change could put some restaurants at a disadvantage, said Hanna Raskin, a longtime food writer who is now the editor of The Food Section newsletter, which covers food news from the south. Better-funded restaurants, for example, might find it easier to run a recycling program, she noted. And restaurants that publicly advocate a social justice mission may be rewarded in some communities but punished in others.

“There are so many great chefs and others in the restaurant community across the south who serve their communities by serving food,” she said. “And being so open is received differently on the coasts than between them.”

But Padmore said the goal is to expand the pool of those who would be considered, not to narrow it down. And she said the personal statement would give people an opportunity to explain how they are working towards the goals of the foundation – even if they are not specifically responsible for crusades. “If I run a small restaurant that serves really great food, I could say that I treat my customers and employees well by treating them like they are part of my community.”

Raskin, who headed the now-closed Association of Food Journalists, also wondered if many journalists would be able to attend if they had to abide by the new rules that require an explanation of how they support the foundation’s values ​​or the new code of ethics that the Participant requires commitment to “move our industry forward”.

Perhaps an even tougher question for the foundation is how to deal with chefs and other potential winners who are accused of problematic behavior at and outside of work.

The foundation said this week it will set up an independent committee composed of people with backgrounds in areas such as law and ethics to develop a process to review candidates and “conduct a fair and impartial review of allegations.”

Padmore admitted that evaluating the misconduct charge will not be easy. “It’s a tough job, but that’s what we’re here for,” she said. As to how any changes will play out when the foundation hands out their next awards in 2022, she said they’ll want to make adjustments over time. “All of these changes are big,” she said. “And we acknowledge that we are working in drafts.”

Seattle Times staff Tan Vinh and Stefanie Loh added to this report information about James Beard Award winners in the Seattle area who were recently accused of bad behavior in 2021, and included quotes in response to the James Beard Foundation announcement Seattle chef Rachel Yang added.

This story was originally published on Washingtonpost.com. Read it here.