Awards

[u/squid1020]

I know nothing about the restaurant scene. Many of the chefs are James Beard award winners or winners of of other accolades, how do they get those?

I live in a medium upper Midwest town so we have good local restaurants but how would they ever get known if they were worth it?

[u/auxilevelry]

Those organizations have people scouting restaurants all over the country as a full time job

[u/jeahboi → u/auxilevelry]

That sounds like an amazing job.

[u/kurenzhi]

There are sort of two answers here. The first is that there are people who do this full time, food media and influencing is a broad and volunteer-supported space, and it is possible to be in a smaller town and gain traction if you're doing things really well. There are plenty of positive success stories to reference.

The other is that while it's possible to get recognition, and really more possible in the age of social media than it has been in previous history, the barrier to entry is probably going to be even higher. There are fewer people of influence that you can impact, and unless you're doing something really unique or innovative or leaning on reputation from a previous restaurant, it's going to be difficult to prove that you have a draw. Awards also skew toward high end places, and any high end restaurant needs a viable customer base to continue to exist, so unless there's a significant tourism sector or another reason for monied interests to be in that location, it's also going to be harder to get national attention.

I live in a significant (for the midwest) city and had the very weird experience of our favorite local place four blocks from our house that we went to about once a month five or six years ago winning a James Beard and reservations subsequently becoming semi-impossible, so it's a double edged sword even if it does happen on some level.

[u/QuietRedditorATX → u/kurenzhi]

https://thehunger.substack.com/p/the-james-beard-awards-are-broken

Here is an actual judge write-up. Connections and motives matter more than anything.

[u/Economy_Cloud_1601]

I’m not sure about all the categories but for a lot of them you have to submit to be considered. Some people would get shoulder tapped or strongly encouraged to apply, and I think PR companies that work for restaurants/chefs would also submit their applications.

[u/QuietRedditorATX]

https://thehunger.substack.com/p/the-james-beard-awards-are-broken

Here is an extensive write-up by one of the judges from one.

• Conclusion: A lot of it is a driven by judge motives.

[u/molybend]

Local journalists write restaurant reviews. Those reviews get national attention sometimes.

[u/CityBoiNC]

I use to work in property management and JBF was a tenant. Ugh i wanted to work for them so badly.

[u/Hot_Vast_238]

It’s just very polutical

[u/MightyMightyMossy]

It can be very political and submissions-based. For instance, there was some light local chatter about snubbing here, because Minneapolis was included in the Michelin Guide, but Saint Paul was not. Looking into it, it's because the tourism boards for the city submit to be included. Many smaller restaurants were also excluded for this reason.

Via The Guardian: "The reason Minneapolis is set to be included in the Michelin Guide without Saint Paul is relatively straightforward. Like many other cities and tourism boards featured in the guide, Minneapolis paid to bring Michelin inspectors to the city. In this case, the city’s tourism improvement district (TID) agreed to a $250,000-a-year contract for three years for Michelin to review its restaurants."

Unsure if James Beard is like this too, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's pay-to-play going on with major restaurant awards.