Earlier this summer, the James Beard Foundation’s Platform space at Pier 57 hosted something you don’t often see in New York: Celebrity chefs Carla Hall, Andrew Zimmern, and Aarón Sánchez cooking shoulder-to-shoulder with three little-known cooks plucked from a field of nearly 92,000 applicants across the country. The event marked the live showcase of Favorite Chef, a national competition that has raised more than $12 million for the Beard Foundation since 2023.
The premise is unusual: Contestants don’t need culinary school credentials or big social media followings to compete: just a video submission convincing enough to break through an algorithm and get noticed. From there, it was up to the public to vote online — one vote per day was free, but most votes were bought in bundles, with proceeds going directly to the Beard Foundation. From this sprawling field, Hall, Zimmern, and Sánchez each picked a finalist, who was then flown to New York to join them in the kitchen at Pier 57.
The event carried a different kind of weight: mentorship, not restaurant pressure. Charleston-based Derek Astorino, crowned the 2025 Favorite Chef winner, was awarded $25,000 and a feature in Taste of Home, but his biggest thrill may have been cooking alongside Hall. Critics’ picks Christian Padilla, Shawnny Roman, and Camille Napolitano McDowell each had their own turn at the stoves with the three celebrity chefs, their airfare to and from New York included as part of the prize.
The competition’s focus on cultural authenticity feels relevant in an era where social media can flatten culinary traditions into trends. “It comes back to self-love,” Hall said. “If you’re comfortable with your culture, it should come out, and you should be sharing, not being molded by what’s out there.”
Hall said she looks for chefs who are true to themselves, not just what they think audiences want. Her pick, Padilla, combined Latin heritage and Southern influences in dishes like duck eggs with jalapeño ash. Sánchez was drawn to Roman’s take on zarandeado, a butterfly-grilled fish, praising her simplicity.
“Sometimes, when people wax poetic too much, they’re hiding something.” He also used the Platform stage to rail against social media’s influence on culinary culture:
“Just because you have a shitload of a following doesn’t mean your damn chicken tastes better than anybody else’s,” said Sánchez.
Zimmern, meanwhile, chose Napolitano McDowell for her ability to create “a lot of flavor, a lot of texture, a lot of contrast on the plate” with minimal ingredients, a perspective that dovetails with his own sustainability work. His next book, The Blue Food Cookbook, is due out in October.
As the industry grapples with burnout, social media pressure and the challenge of maintaining authenticity, Favorite Chef’s approach suggests a different path forward. One focused on building skills over followers, celebrating cultural roots over trends and developing careers rather than creating viral moments.
What unfolded in the Platform kitchen wasn’t the usual glossy food competition, but something closer to mentorship: Hall positioning herself as “an open book,” Sánchez hammering fundamentals over flash, and Zimmern pushing the idea of doing more with less. In a dining world where virality often wins out over craft, the scene at Pier 57 suggested another path — one grounded in skill and cultural roots, not just clicks. Or, as Sánchez put it: “I just want this new generation to understand it’s a slow race.”
Andrew Zimmern with Zimmern, meanwhile, chose Camille Napolitano McDowell from Los Angeles; Carla Hall’s pick was Tuscon’s Christian Padilla; while Aarón Sánchez picked Shawnny Roman from Scottsdale.