James Beard awards: Obelix, Virtue among nominees, plus a solid Midwest showing in Wednesday announcement

The James Beard Foundation named the finalists Wednesday for its 2023 awards — the equivalent of the Oscars of the restaurant world — and it comes with some pretty big surprises.

Chicago chefs didn’t completely dominate the Best Chef: Great Lakes region category, as they largely have for the past decade.

Diana Dávila of Mi Tocaya Antojeria and Kasama’s Tim Flores and Genie Kwon made the list, but the remaining three nominees are from Detroit: Omar Anani (Saffron De Twah), Andy Hollyday (Selden Standard) and Sarah Welch (Marrow).

This means a chef from somewhere other than Chicago — the region includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio — has a real chance to win the award for the first time since 2015, when Jonathon Sawyer won at The Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland.

While I’m a huge advocate for Chicago’s dining scene, I think it’s important to recognize the Great Lakes region is full of great restaurants and chefs. It’s encouraging they’ve been nominated.

In fact, several Midwest spots bested their Chicago counterparts in nationwide categories. While no Chicago spot made it to the nominee list for Outstanding Wine and Beverage Program, Ann Arbor’s Spencer is among the finalists. Cincinnati had a strong showing, with Mita’s up for Outstanding Restaurant and Elaine Uykimpang Bentz of Cafe Mochiko as a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker (as is Shawn McKenzie of Cafe Ceres in Minneapolis). Outstanding Restaurateur nominees include Brandon Chrostowski from Cleveland.

But there was still plenty of great news for local chefs.

Damarr Brown, chef de cuisine at Virtue, is a nominee in the Emerging Chef category. This continues a great run for Virtue, as Erick Williams, the chef and owner, picked up Best Chef: Great Lakes award last year. Joining him are Rashida Holmes (Bridgetown Roti, Los Angeles), Serigne Mbaye (Dakar NOLA, New Orleans), Charlie Mitchell (Clover Hill, New York City) and Amanda Shulman (Her Place Supper Club, Philadelphia).

In the Best New Restaurant category, Chicago’s Obelix restaurant will go up against nine other restaurants, including Nolia in Cincinnati and Lupi & Iris in Milwaukee.

[ Review: Obelix offers wild and untraditional French food — and what’s likely Chicago’s most expensive taco ]

Sepia restaurant, which opened in 2007 in the West Loop, is among five nominees for Outstanding Hospitality, competing against The Black Cypress (Pullman, Washington), Bottega (Birmingham, Alabama), Lula Drake (Columbia, South Carolina) and The Quarry (Monson, Maine).

[ Review: After more than a decade, Sepia still superb ]

In the regional Best Chefs: Midwest categories — which includes Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota — Madison, Wisconsin nabbed two nominations for Francesco Mangano (Osteria Papavero) and Fairchild’s Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger. Milwaukee chef Gregory León of Amilinda is also one of the five finalists.

The Humanitarian of the Year Award will go to the co-founders of the Black Farmer Fund, Olivia Watkins and Karen Washington. And the Lifetime Achievement Award honoree is Madhur Jaffrey, who has written extensively on Indian cuisine.

To see who will win, you’ll have to wait until June 5, when the 2023 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards will take over the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The city has hosted the prestigious food awards since 2015.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a non-Chicago chef had not won a Best Chef: Great Lakes award since 2011. The most recent such win was in 2015.

nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com