![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781590411_33_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nOn Monday evening the James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its annual restaurant and chef awards \u2014 some of the most prestigious dining accolades in the country.<\/p>\n
At a ceremony held in Chicago, three of L.A.\u2019s nine nominees won: Kato<\/b> for outstanding wine and other beverages; Dave Beran<\/b> for best chef in California; and Providence<\/b> for outstanding hospitality. In addition, local nonprofits were recognized. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the foundation announced that the Serving Spoon in Inglewood received an America\u2019s classics award, and L.A. chef Nancy Silverton was named recipient of a lifetime achievement award.<\/p>\n
Dave Beran<\/b> of Santa Monica restaurants Seline and Pasjoli won the title of best chef in California, a category that Los Angeles chefs have won consecutively since 2023. At Seline, Beran, who is an alumnus of Alinea in Chicago, crafts an intricate tasting menu that pulls from his L.A. surroundings, fine dining training and Midwestern roots. Pasjoli is his more casual French neighborhood bistro. He walked to the stage to thank those in his life who\u2019ve supported and inspired him, especially through hardship.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Seline and Pasjoli chef Dave Beran was just named the best chef in the state of California.<\/p>\n
(Allison Zaucha \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has probably been the most difficult year and a half of my life professionally, personally,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were points in it where I didn\u2019t know where I\u2019d end up. I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d wake up and we wouldn\u2019t have restaurants the next day. I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d be capable of going to the restaurants the next day. Moments like that, you look around and you look within and you dig deep, and you realize that what you need more than anything are the people in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2017 Providence<\/b> was a semifinalist for outstanding service, and on Monday the fine-dining Hollywood restaurant won the award for outstanding hospitality. Chef and co-owner Michael Cimarusti thanked the immigrant staff members who help power Providence and countless others. Donato Poto, co-owner and general manager, then took to the podium to stress that hospitality is just as integral as food. \u201cHospitality,\u201d Poto said, \u201cit\u2019s an art of reaching out a hand without asking for anything in return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fine dining Arts District restaurant Kato<\/b> won the category of outstanding wine and other beverages program. The award arrives 10 years after chef and co-owner Jon Yao \u2014 who won the category of best chef in California last year\u2014 opened Kato\u2019s first iteration in a West L.A. strip mall. The restaurant from Yao and co-owners Ryan Bailey and Nikki Reginaldo began humbly, as did its beverage program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen guests asked for wine glasses, they came straight out of a box from my trunk,\u201d said Bailey, who spoke on behalf of the team in an acceptance speech. \u201cSeatings were tight, and a successful service required everybody\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the restaurant evolved \u2014 eventually elevating its experience and moving downtown \u2014 so did its beverage program. After the move, Bailey, along with bar director Austin Hennelly, built a program that considers nonalcoholic cocktails and wines just as thoroughly as boozy beverages. In 2024 L.A. Times Food critic Bill Addison said Kato \u201cis leading the evolution in nonalcoholic beverages.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cFrom Day One we wanted to make sure that every person at the table, whether they were consuming alcohol or not, received the same intentional curation, thoughtful creativity and dedicated hospitality,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cThat no matter what was in the glass you were raising to cheers, you felt as an equal in the celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n Groundbreaking chef, cookbook author, restaurateur and media personality Nancy Silverton is the recipient of this year\u2019s lifetime achievement award.<\/p>\n Nancy Silverton pictured in 2017.<\/p>\n (Mariah Tauger \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cBefore I get started I just want to say that although I am so honored to receive this prestigious lifetime achievement award,\u201d she said from the podium, \u201cI want you to know that that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m going anywhere.\u201d Silverton has trailblazed a career through the food industry, but has no plans of retiring anytime soon.<\/p>\n She began her cooking in L.A. restaurants such as Michael\u2019s and Spago, then branched out with a restaurant of her own: the celebrated but since-shuttered Campanile, which she operated with her then-husband, the late Mark Peel. She launched La Brea Bakery, then debuted her trio of connected restaurants: Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza and Chi Spacca. More recently she\u2019s partnered in local restaurants such as Max & Helen\u2019s and Lapaba.<\/p>\n \u201cShe really opened my eyes to what bread could be, and then I think opened the whole city\u2019s eyes about what bread can be,\u201d L.A. Times general manager of Food Laurie Ochoa said in a prerecorded video. \u201cOne thing that Nancy has really contributed is the sense that, in this country, food is really personal, and she\u2019s made food that makes us proud and makes us excited to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n In February the James Beard Foundation honored Inglewood\u2019s Serving Spoon<\/b> restaurant as an American classic<\/a>; on Monday night third-generation owners Jessica Bain and Justin Johnson<\/b> appeared onstage to collect their medals. The distinction is awarded to \u201cindependently owned restaurants with timeless appeal,\u201d and the Serving Spoon, founded in 1983, was honored by the foundation for its Southern cuisine and its effect on the community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe food is just a piece of the puzzle,\u201d Johnson previously told The Times<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the environment that you create, the way the staff greets you, the way somebody calls you by your first name.\u201d<\/p>\n Two Angelenos also received the humanitarian of the year award.<\/p>\n Oth\u00f3n Nolasco, right, and Dami\u00e1n Diaz, co-founders of No Us Without You, pictured in 2020 when they began their nonprofit.<\/p>\n (Silvia Razgova \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n In a heart-rending prerecorded video, No Us Without You<\/b> founders Oth\u00f3n Nolas<\/b>c<\/b>o<\/b> and Dami\u00e1n Diaz<\/b> detailed their nonprofit\u2019s pandemic-spurred beginnings. Their work provides groceries, pantry items and other items to undocumented back-of-house workers. They distribute over 10,000 pounds of food every quarter.<\/p>\n In addition to the award they will receive $20,000 to continue the work.<\/p>\n The L.A.-based Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights<\/b> was also an Impact Awards honoree.<\/p>\n Farther north, Kevin Diedrich of San Francisco\u2019s Pacific Cocktail Haven took home the award for outstanding professional in cocktail service.<\/p>\n Throughout the night restaurateurs, chefs, the mayor of Chicago, the governor of Illinois and others underscored the importance and inspiration of immigrant families and the many contributions of the industry\u2019s undocumented workforce. It was also a night for cultural crossover. Hip-hop duo Run the Jewels presented the beverage awards (a nod to their new canned-beverage company). Jon Bon Jovi was there.<\/p>\n Food, the foundation\u2019s representatives said, is an intersection of interests. \u201cIt\u2019s really at the epicenter of what culture is,\u201d Dawn Padmore, vice president of the foundation\u2019s awards, said on the red carpet before the ceremony.<\/p>\n On Saturday the James Beard Foundation held its annual media awards ceremony, which recognized culinary coverage in journalism, broadcast and cookbooks. The event, also held in Chicago, awarded multiple L.A. nominees, including former Los Angeles Times writer Robert Lopez, who won the investigative reporting award for an exhaustive dive into the world of California\u2019s child farmworkers<\/a>. LA Times Studios, the branded-content arm of the company, won an award for commercial media.<\/a><\/p>\n View a recording of the 2026 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards here<\/a>, and the foundation\u2019s media awards can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: Stephanie Breijo, the author of this article, also won a James Beard media award; she was named the recipient of the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday evening the James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its annual restaurant and chef awards \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":870534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,75849,354248,960,354247,354251,990,354249,14850,136724,2961,224,5337,354252,354250,15603,8463,1628],"class_list":["post-870533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-category","tag-chef-award","tag-chicago","tag-classic-award","tag-dave-beran","tag-food","tag-good-chef","tag-james-beard-foundation","tag-kato","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-other-beverage-program","tag-outstanding-wine","tag-providence","tag-restaurant","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116758315753620527","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781590412_5_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781590413_766_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n