Florida Chefs and Restaurants Named as James Beard Award 2018 Semifinalists

It’s officially award season in the food world, and this morning the James Beard Foundation released its list of semifinalists for the 2018 Restaurant and Chef Awards and Miami has six nominations this year, while the state got a total of ten.

In Miami, Coral Gables’ Palme d’Or was nominated for Outstanding Service, The Forge was nominated for Outstanding Wine Program, Zak Stern from Zak the Baker was nominated for the Outstanding Baker category, while Janine Booth from Stiltsville Fish Bar was nominated for Rising Star Chef of the Year. Brad Kilgore got nominated yet again for Alter, while newcomer Ghee Indian Kitchen’s chef Niven Patel also got a nod.

Further up the coast, both Lindsay Autry from the The Regional Kitchen & Public House in West Palm Beach and Clay Conley from Buccan in Palm Beach were both nominated from Best Chef South, along with Lauren Macellaro of The Reading Room in St. Petersburg. While in Tampa, Richard Gonzmart of Columbia Restaurant Group was nominated for Outstanding Restaurateur.

If you want to find out how the committee comes to their decisions, here’s a little refresher. The James Beard finalists will be announced on March 14, before the winners are announced at the James Beard Awards Gala on May 17 Check out the full list of nominees here.