What Philly’s Two Big James Beard Wins Mean for Our Food Scene
A long-overdue victory and a major national title just sent a clear message to the rest of the country about the caliber of Philadelphia restaurants.
From left: Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakaya; Nok Suntaranon of Kalaya. / Photographs by Justin James Muir and Christopher Leaman
After years of waiting and numerous nominations, Jesse Ito is finally bringing some well-deserved hardware home from the James Beard Awards.
Last night in Chicago, the James Beard Foundation handed out their Restaurant and Chef awards — one of the most prestigious honors in an industry that is just chock full of galas and accolades.
Over the past few years, Philly has been well-represented at the JBF Awards. We’ve had dozens of nominees, an impressive roster of semifinalists, and a handful of really impressive winners. But last night’s ceremony was special not just because Ito won but because this was his ninth appearance as a semifinalist or nominee. He has been nominated every single year since 2017 (with the notable exception of 2020 and 2021, when no awards were handed out) — basically every year since he opened his restaurant, Royal Sushi and Izakaya — and never brought home a medal.
Until last night.
The award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic, covers the entire region (including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.), and Jesse had some solid competition. Locally, he was up against Amanda Shulman from Her Place Supper Club (which took home one of Philly’s first Michelin stars) and Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate of Honeysuckle (which made the Michelin list of Recommended restaurants and I thought was a lock for this year’s award). But it is awesome to see Ito finally walk out of the Lyric Opera House with a little bling around his neck. It’s about time.
And he wasn’t the only local having a very good night in Chicago last night. In their wisdom, the James Beard Foundation also saw fit to hang a medal on Kalaya and chef Nok Suntaranon for Outstanding Restaurant.
This is an equally huge deal for two reasons. First, because Outstanding Restaurant is one of those categories that puts Philly in the ring with the best restaurants in the entire country. This year, Suntaranon (who won Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic in 2023) and Kalaya were up against Catbird Seat in Nashville, the Four Horsemen in Brooklyn, Mixtli in San Antonio, and Vicia in St. Louis — serious contenders, to be sure. But Kalaya has been on an absolute tear lately, collecting awards and accolades from every corner of the industry, from taking 11th place on the 50 Best North America list to being named a Michelin Recommended restaurant and bringing home the gold for Philly last night in this particular category — for the kind of deeply personal, deeply autobiographical, and stunningly delicious food that comes out of Kalaya’s kitchen — just feels like putting the cherry on top of an incredible few years.
Second, Philly has absolutely dominated the Outstanding Restaurant category in recent years. Since 2019, in the six years that awards have actually been handed out (there were no winners chosen in 2020, only nominees — including Kalaya for Best New Restaurant — and in 2021 the awards were canceled completely), our restaurants have won three of them. In 2019, it was Zahav. Friday Saturday Sunday won in 2023. And now Kalaya in 2026. And honestly, that’s pretty remarkable.
Philadelphia went into this year’s James Beard Awards with 13 semifinalists — everyone from Frankie Ramirez at Amá to pastry chef Justine MacNeil and the crew at Emmett. It was a very solid batch of contenders. And coming away with these two huge, historic wins? That’s enough for me. As always, I think that Philly should’ve won in every category, but that just feels greedy. And for right now, I’m cool with everyone knowing that not only do we have the best (or at least the most outstanding) restaurant in the country right here in Fishtown and the best chef in the entire Mid-Atlantic region working his magic behind the sushi bar on South 2nd Street, but for the past several years, fully half of all the outstanding restaurants in America have been right here at home.
So, my sincere congratulations to the winners and all of the nominees. It’s been another very good year here in Philly. Everyone should take a bow.
And for anyone interested in how the other categories shook out, the whole list of finalists and winners for the 2026 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards can be found right here.
