4 Southland Restaurants Up For 2022 James Beard Awards

LOS ANGELES, CA — Several Southland restaurants — along with their chefs — were just named finalists for the 2022 James Beard Foundation Awards, or the “Oscars of Food,” as they’re sometimes known.

One LA restaurant was nominated in the “Best New Restaurant” category, while another was nominated for “Outstanding Pastry Chef.” One chef from LA and another from Santa Monica represented two out of five chefs nominated as the best in California.

The list of finalists from across the country was announced Wednesday by the James Beard Foundation, a nonprofit named after the famed chef and culinary educator James Beard, who was known as the “Dean of American Cookery.” The foundation is granting awards for the first time since 2020, when the pandemic canceled the awards ceremony, and completely upended the country’s restaurant scene.

The 2022 awards are the Foundation’s first following an extensive audit in response to what many criticized as a lack of diversity in the awards.

Final awards will be granted in a ceremony in Chicago on June 13.

Here are the Southland restaurants and chefs who made the second-to-final cut. Click on the links to learn more about the restaurants and their chefs:

Best New Restaurant

Angry Egret Dinette, Los Angeles

Outstanding Pastry Chef

Margarita Manzke, République, Los Angeles

Best Chef: California

• Bryant Ng, Cassia, Santa Monica
• Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong, Jitlada, Los Angeles

Other California finalists include:

Best New Restaurant
Horn Barbecue, Oakland

Outstanding Chef

Reem Assil, Reem’s, Oakland and San Francisco

Emerging Chef

Crystal Wahpepah, Wahpepah’s Kitchen, Oakland

Best Chef: California

• Brandon Jew, Mister Jiu’s, San Francisco
• James Syhabout, Commis, Oakland
• Pim Techamuanvivit, Nari, San Francisco