New Orleans chefs and restaurants received 14 nominations

Today, the James Beard Foundation announced its Restaurant and Chef Awards semifinalists for 2020, and New Orleans is represented with 14 nominations. in eight categories The final Restaurant and Chef Award nominees will be announced Wednesday, March 25.

Last year, after 14 New Orleans chefs and restaurants received nominations and five were named finalists, New Orleans wound end up represented in just one winning category — Willa Jean’s Kelly Field’s took home Outstanding Pastry chef.

Here’s the 2020 long list:

Best New Restaurant

The latest restaurant from Donald Link’s group, Gianna, is Nominated. Gianna, which opened April 20, is led by talented young chef Rebecca Wilcomb, who helped design a menu based on the regional Italian cooking from her grandmother’s kitchen.

Outstanding Baker

Graison Gill, the local baker behind the beloved Bellegarde brand, is nominated in the Outstanding Baker category. Gill opened his first retail bakery in July.

Outstanding Chef

Donald Link of Herbsaint is nominated once again, a finalist six times in the past for this award, including in 2018. In 2010, Link’s cookbook, Real Cajun, won a James Beard Award and in 2007 he was named Best Chef: South.

Outstanding Hospitality

Brigtsen’s is nominated, a semi-finalist in the service category ten times before.

Outstanding Restaurateur

Once again, JoAnn Clevenger of Upperline is nominated. Clevenger was also nominated for this honor in 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2015.

Outstanding Wine Program

Bacchanal gets the nod in this category in 2020, same as in 2018 and 2019.

Rising Star of the Year

Ana Castro is once again the only local semifinalist for this award. Getting her start at Kristin Essig and Michael Stoltzfus’s Coquette, she know helps lead the kitchen at the six month old Thalia, a finalist for Best Restaurant in Eater NOLA’s annual awards.

Best Chefs: South

New Orleans has three exciting chefs nominated for the first time in the Best Chef: South, category, which recognizes chefs in Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Blake Aguillard and William “Trey” Smith, the team behind the Eater Award winning Restaurant of the Year Saint-Germain, and Hao Gong, the creative mind behind the sushi bar at Uptown’s LUVI.

Kristen Essig and Michael Stoltzfus of Coquette and the new Thalia were once again nominated, as in 2019 and 2018. For the second year in a row, Michael Gulotta of Maypop, Mason Hereford of Turkey and the Wolf, Isaac Toups of Toups’ Meatery, who was also a finalist for this award in 2016, were all nominated.

Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Foundation Awards.

• Here Are the 2020 James Beard Awards Restaurant and Chef Semifinalists [EATER]
• Here Are New Orleans’ James Beard Award Finalists For 2019 [ENOLA]