Chef Alon Shaya wins James Beard Award
By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN
Chef Alon Shaya, who is the principal chef at Domenica Restaurant in the Roosevelt Hotel, Pizza Domenica and the recently-opened Israeli and Middle Eastern themed restaurant Shaya, won the top honor as the James Beard Award recipient as Best Chef from the Southern Region.
Chef Alon Shaya, the recipient of the Best Chef of the South region as determined by the James A. Beard Awards committee. (Photo courtesy of the John Besh Group)
Shaya beat out a slate of other nominees including fellow New Orleanian Chef Justin Devillier from Le Petite Grocery to take home only the second James Beard Award presented to an Israeli.
Shaya’s friend, Chef Michael Solomonov of Zahav Restaraurant in Pittsburgh was the first Israeli to win the highly coveted regional award as a nominee from the Mid-Atlantic region in 2011.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” Shaya told the CCJN in an exclusive interview. “It’s really amazing,” he gasped.
Now in its 26th year, the James Beard Awards are named for a legendary food writer and are considered the “Oscars” of the restaurant and food writing world.
For the past 25 years the awards ceremony had been held in New York at Lincoln Center. This year, however, through the efforts of Jewish Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others, the awards were held at the Chicago Lyric Opera House on Monday evening for the first of three years. Shaya traveled to the Windy City with his wife and one of his partners, Octavio Mantilla. Shaya operates all of his restaurants through the auspices of Chef John Besh and the John Besh Group.
“It’s different,” Shaya noted of the change. “It’s just a completely different vibe of the city than New York is. It was great to see a lot of the best chefs from Chicago put on such a great show for everybody and it was such a great change of atmosphere.”
Shaya got to see Emanuel, President Barack Obama’s former White House Chief of Staff, who welcomed the nominees and the committee members to Chicago. However, Shaya was unable to meet up with the mayor, who was recently elected to a second term. While born in Chicago, Emanuel is the son of an Israeli doctor from Jerusalem.
“I’ve never met him before,” Shaya admitted. “I would love to meet him.”
After the nominations were announced, Shaya’s name was announced as the recipient of the regional award and he ascended to the dais to accept his award, a medal that is struck in the image of Beard. “I had to thank my wife and to thank my fellow co-workers, who truly made this happen,” Shaya recalled. “I got a chance to thank the City of New Orleans and to thank them for embracing me for the last 12 years,” he continued.
Shaya went on to acknowledge the staffs of fellow chefs and workers he has assembled at all three of his restaruants. “These are people that you can learn from their mentorship and support,” he noted. “That’s the only way people can grow and that’s the only way that people can get to this level,” Shaya acknowledged.
As a recipient of a James Beard Award, Shaya will now be a voting member of the awards committee and will be able to participate in the nomination process for future awards.
“Now I’m able to vote for next year’s winner,” he said, taking it all in. “You become part of the voting committee. It’s really a great honor.”
