The James Beard Foundation Awards, considered America’s most prestigious national restaurant awards, kicked off in Chicago on Monday night, honoring food and beverage pros across cuisines, price ranges and regions — and a Los Angeles chef took home one of the night’s biggest honors.
In January, 18 Los Angeles-area chefs, pop-up shops, bakeries, and other culinary talent were named semifinalists for the 2024 James Beard Foundation Restaurant & Chef Awards. In April, only two Los Angeles businesses and one Orange County business advanced to the nominations. Tonight, one of them was crowned Best Chef in California.
Clockwise from top left: Lusena Cheong, Hiramasa Kara, and Kuya Road pancit with green shrimp.
(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
The prestigious regional honor was received by Chef-owner Lord Maynard Lela of Kuya Lord, a modern Filipino restaurant that was named one of the Los Angeles Times’ 101 Best Restaurants. The nickname for the restaurant and Lela is a term of endearment meaning “older brother” in Tagalog.
In April, Lera told The Times that whether he wins in June or not, his James Beard nomination represents a victory for Filipino society. “It means a lot to me and it means a lot to the restaurant because it’s a celebration of the progress that Filipino cuisine is making,” Lera said.
Lera grew up in Lucena City, Philippines, and later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in some of the city’s most prestigious restaurants, including Bestia and the h.wood Group. In 2019, at the age of 40, he set off to pursue his own project. From his home in La Cañada Flintridge, he opened a Filipino barbecue joint amid the pandemic, and word of mouth quickly spread, with customers ordering in advance and taking home specialties such as kare-kare and pancit in large aluminum trays.
Chef Maynard Lera has been working the outdoor grill at a backyard pop-up in 2021 before opening his own restaurant.
(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
In 2022, Lera pivoted the concept to a casual restaurant in Melrose Hill, where his signature lechon and sweet sausage are now served topped on rice bowls or on eye-catching combo trays alongside modern dishes like grilled kingfish.
“I want to thank my wife for being with me and supporting me from the beginning when I came to America,” Lela said in her acceptance speech. “She even quit her job to be with me on this journey. Without her, Kuya Road would not be here today. This recognition is not only a testament to my personal efforts and hard work, but also a reflection of the support, encouragement and collaboration from so many incredible people I have met in my life. Throughout this journey, I have been fortunate to have had mentors, friends and family.”
“I want to thank my team and my sous chefs. [Josh Simpao]Who runs the restaurant? [and] It gave me the opportunity to come to Chicago and have this once in a lifetime experience. [opportunity]Thank you, everyone. Thank you, James Beard. Thank you, Malaming Salamat Po.
Veggie galettes are baked before dawn at Gusto Bread in Long Beach, a traditional grain bakery nominated for the 2024 James Beard Foundation Outstanding Bakery Award.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Long Beach artisan bakery Gusto Bread was nominated in the Outstanding Bakery category but didn’t win; that honor went to Zu Bakery in Portland, Maine. Run by owners Arturo Enciso and Ana Belén Salatino, Gusto Bread uses carefully selected grains and other ingredients to serve up some of the best pastries in the area.
Anaheim’s Strong Water Tiki Bar, named one of the top tiki bars in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times, was named a finalist in the Outstanding Wine and Other Beverage Program category, surpassing Lula Drake Wine Parlor in Columbia, South Carolina, which took home the honor Monday night.
But a food industry luminary with deep roots in the region received another honor, perhaps the most prestigious of the awards the James Beard Foundation hands out each year: former Los Angeles Times food editor Ruth Reichl received its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ruth Reichl, pictured at the Los Angeles Times Studios during the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, is this year’s recipient of the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)
Reichl served as food critic for the Los Angeles Times from 1984 to 1993, before becoming editor and hiring current Los Angeles Times food director Laurie Ochoa and her husband, the late Jonathan Gold, who was the paper’s restaurant critic. Reichl’s career has spanned decades and continents, chronicling changing trends, tastes and the culinary world for publications as diverse as The New York Times, Gourmet, Saveur and Bon Appétit.
“All weekend long, people have been telling me, ‘You’re a legend,’ but I don’t think I’m a legend,” Reichl said during a live broadcast of the red carpet celebration before the awards show. “I’m just doing what I do, and, you know, I feel like I’m the luckiest person on earth. I’ve been able to do exactly what I wanted to do my whole life. I feel like not just me, but our whole generation group, we’ve really changed the way America eats, and that’s an amazing feeling.”
Her influential writing extends beyond articles: the chef and author has penned 12 books, including novels, cookbooks, and memoirs. Reichl has also appeared as a judge on the cooking show “Top Chef Masters” and is the host and producer of the 2023 documentary “Food & Country.”
The James Beard Awards are often referred to as “the Oscars of food.” Before the ceremony, Reichl was surprised to hear from a red carpet host that, among her many other accomplishments, the phrase was something she coined: She called the first James Beard Awards ceremony “the Oscars of food.” The phrase was featured in a 1991 Los Angeles Times summary of the first awards ceremony (though chef Lydia Shire said in the article, “I’m from Boston because this is the Oscars of food.”).
“I’ve been going to Beers since the very beginning,” Reichl said before Monday’s ceremony, “and I’ve always [about] What a generational shift. Food has changed so much. This generation is so different, so much more diverse, so much more exciting. It really gives me so much hope for what’s to come in the food world.”
In addition to Monday’s ceremony, the foundation held its annual Media Awards on June 8, recognizing the best cookbooks, documentaries, journalism and other reporting of the year. As with the 2024 Restaurant Awards, the 2024 Media Awards only had a few Los Angeles winners, but several local food series and writers were nominated this year, including Los Angeles Times food editor Daniel Hernandez.
“The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp,” written by Fly by Jing Chili Crisp entrepreneur and Sua Superette owner Jing Gao, won the Visual category, along with photographer and visual artist Yudi Ella Echevarria. “The Michoacan File,” narrated by actor and Los Angeles restaurateur Danny Trejo and directed by Bernardo Arzuaga, won the award for Best Documentary Visual Media. A complete list of the 2024 James Beard Foundation Media Award winners can be found here.