Food & Wine’s best new chefs list includes 3 Chicagoans

Damarr Brown, Tim Flores and Genie Kwon rank among the best new chefs in the country, according to Food and Wine’s list of honorees, out Monday. This year the magazine recognized 11 up-and-coming chefs, making Chicago’s showing genuinely impressive.

Damarr Brown, chef de cuisine at Virtue (1462 E. 53rd St.), was commended for his ability to “dispel the myth that Southern cooking is ‘unhealthy’ and that it’s a cuisine that doesn’t value seasonality or vegetables.”

In the article, Brown laments the lack of Black chefs in leadership positions around the city, but hopes he can help increase that number. “I think that if we can develop the next three chefs who are really leaders, even just in Chicago, then we’ve changed the game,” Brown said.

Earlier this year, Brown came away as the fan favorite on the 19th season of “Top Chef,” where he placed fourth but still won a cash prize as viewers’ favorite chef.

It’s been a great few years for Virtue in Hyde Park, which chef Erick Williams opened in 2018. A few months ago, Williams won a James Beard award for best chef in the Great Lakes region — the sole Chicago chef to take home an award that night.

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This also continues the impressive streak for Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, co-owners of Kasama (1001 N. Winchester Ave.). Earlier this year the restaurant, which alternates between offering creative baked goods in the morning and an exquisite tasting menu at night, was the first Filipino restaurant to receive a Michelin star.

The local press has been no less rapturous. Chicago Magazine picked it as the best new restaurant of the year. Fellow Tribune food critic Louisa Chu wrote a glowing four-star review in the Tribune, noting that the restaurant honors its Filipino culture while “evolving beyond it into one of the best restaurants in the world right now.” Together, we named it the Restaurant of the Year in our 2022 Critics’ Choice Food Awards.

These chefs join a long line of esteemed Food & Wine honorees, including Diana Davila (Mi Tocaya), Noah Sandoval (Oriole), Stephanie Izard (Girl and the Goat), Grant Achatz (Alinea) and Paul Kahan (Blackbird, One Off Hospitality).

Read the full Food & Wine article here.

nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com

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