Philly's Zahav Named Best Restaurant In US At James Beard Awards

PHILADELPHIA — It's official: Philadelphia's Zahav is the best restaurant in the nation after taking home top honors at the Oscars of the culinary world.

At the James Beard Foundation Awards, Zahav won the "Outstanding Restaurant" category, going up against 19 other restaurants from across the nation.

Zahav chef Camille Cogswell won Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2018 and Zahav owner and chef Michael Solomonov won Outstanding Chef overall in 2017.

The Israeli eatery was previously named one of the nation's most essential restaurants by Eater.com and among the nation's top 100 restaurants by OpenTable users.

Unfortunately, several other Philly restaurants and chefs that made it to the Beard Award semifinalist did not emerge winners. Those are:

• Tova du Plessis, Essen Bakery — Outstanding Baker
• Monk's Café — Outstanding Bar Program
• Marc Vetri, Vetri Cucina — Outstanding Chef
• James Matty, Suraya — Outstanding Pastry Chef
• Ellen Yin, High Street Hospitality Group, Philadelphia (Fork, High Street on Market, High Street on Hudson) — Outstanding Restaurateur
• Jesse Ito, Royal Izakaya — Rising Star Chef of the Year
• Nicholas Elmi, Laurel; Rich Landau, Vedge; Cristina Martinez, South Philly Barbacoa — Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, West Chester's Andiario was a semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category, Bolete in Bethlehem was named a semifinalist in the Outstanding Restaurant category, and Kristin Butterworth of Farmington's Lautrec was nominated in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category.