2023 James Beard Finalists: Only One MN Chef Left Standing!

Welp, anyone who has lived through the past couple years in the Twin Cities knows we are in a “rebuilding” phase after the uprising, the pandemic, and navigating the ever-present gifts and challenges of a community where the winter lasts six months and most of the fine-dining public has both a really nice kitchen and a dining table, and no particularly pressing need to leave the house when they don’t wish to. 

The James Beard Award finalists were revealed today. It stings a little to be completely locked out of the Best Chef Midwest category, a category that was all but built for us, after we kept losing to Chicago. Alas, alas. Yet, all congrats to … swallows hard … Wisconsin! They received three nominations, two in Madison, one in Milwaukee. If we are in the mood to grasp at straws, which we might be, we might do some mental gymnastics to claim some attachment to Tim McKee alum Andy Kroeger of Fairchild. And Josh Habiger, alum of Auriga, the Doug Flicker restaurant, is nominated in the Southeast for his Bastion. Raise a Bull’s Horn cheeseburger in his general direction? In a more mature mood, we might instead say: Hearty congrats to all! Full category list below:

Best Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI) 

•     Sanaa Abourezk, Sanaa’s Gourmet Mediterranean, Sioux Falls, SD
•     Gregory León, Amilinda, Milwaukee, WI
•     Francesco Mangano, Osteria Papavero, Madison, WI
•     Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger, Fairchild, Madison, WI
•     David Utterback, Yoshitomo, Omaha, NE

Now for the one bit of unalloyed bright and shining joy: Shawn McKenzie is nominated under the Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker category! Pastry chef behind both her own Café Ceres and the high-production, stellar bakery Rustica, as well as inventor of superb pastries at Cardamom at the Walker, and the other melodious Daniel del Prado restaurants, Martina, Colita, Josephina, Rosalia, Macanda. Never has one woman made holding three jobs seem so delicious! 

Longtime readers know that I am a Shawn McKenzie superfan, I think her lens and her perspective on pastry is exactly what America needs today. A different way of thinking about vanilla may seem like an esoteric pursuit outside of food-world, but inside food-world it’s monumental.  If you want more info on that admittedly odd sentence, read me at length here and here.

I’d like to extend thanks again to McKenzie for throwing her life’s possessions in the trunk of her car and driving across country to stake a flag here. The entire state is enriched by your presence. Lo, all of American pastry is enriched by your presence! Now the big question: Can McKenzie win out over California, where one finds a great many more Beard voters? Full list of nominations for her category:

•     Veronika Gerasimova, Veronika’s Pastry Shop, Billings, MT
•     Elaine Uykimpang Bentz, Café Mochiko, Cincinnati, OH
•     Vince Bugtong, ABACA, San Francisco, CA  
•     Margarita Manzke, République, Los Angeles, CA
•     Shawn McKenzie, Café Cerés, Minneapolis, MN

The cliché is that it’s an honor to be nominated, and in this case I think it’s true, making a national splash in food is difficult to do from the Twin Cities. That McKenzie is doing it is truly incredible.

Now, for the rest of you: Homework. It’s up to you to get us from our rebuilding phase to rebuilt. Go on out and get one of McKenzie’s famed zephyr cookies, or pre-order one of those insanely wonderful chocolate-orange babkas for your next shindig. Then, go out and support another food-maker you love! We’re all in it together, and, fueled by wonderful pastries and the shining beacon that is Shawn McKenzie, I know in my heart we can get anywhere and do everything!