On Monday evening the James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its annual restaurant and chef awards — some of the most prestigious dining accolades in the country.
At a ceremony held in Chicago, three of L.A.’s nine nominees won: Kato for outstanding wine and other beverages; Dave Beran for best chef in California; and Providence for outstanding hospitality. In addition, local nonprofits were recognized.
Earlier this year, the foundation announced that the Serving Spoon in Inglewood received an America’s classics award, and L.A. chef Nancy Silverton was named recipient of a lifetime achievement award.
Dave Beran of Santa Monica restaurants Seline and Pasjoli won the title of best chef in California, a category that Los Angeles chefs have won consecutively since 2023. At Seline, Beran, who is an alumnus of Alinea in Chicago, crafts an intricate tasting menu that pulls from his L.A. surroundings, fine dining training and Midwestern roots. Pasjoli is his more casual French neighborhood bistro. He walked to the stage to thank those in his life who’ve supported and inspired him, especially through hardship.
Seline and Pasjoli chef Dave Beran was just named the best chef in the state of California.
(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)
“This has probably been the most difficult year and a half of my life professionally, personally,” he said. “There were points in it where I didn’t know where I’d end up. I didn’t know if I’d wake up and we wouldn’t have restaurants the next day. I didn’t know if I’d be capable of going to the restaurants the next day. Moments like that, you look around and you look within and you dig deep, and you realize that what you need more than anything are the people in your life.”
In 2017 Providence was a semifinalist for outstanding service, and on Monday the fine-dining Hollywood restaurant won the award for outstanding hospitality. Chef and co-owner Michael Cimarusti thanked the immigrant staff members who help power Providence and countless others. Donato Poto, co-owner and general manager, then took to the podium to stress that hospitality is just as integral as food. “Hospitality,” Poto said, “it’s an art of reaching out a hand without asking for anything in return.”
Fine dining Arts District restaurant Kato won the category of outstanding wine and other beverages program. The award arrives 10 years after chef and co-owner Jon Yao — who won the category of best chef in California last year— opened Kato’s first iteration in a West L.A. strip mall. The restaurant from Yao and co-owners Ryan Bailey and Nikki Reginaldo began humbly, as did its beverage program.
“When guests asked for wine glasses, they came straight out of a box from my trunk,” said Bailey, who spoke on behalf of the team in an acceptance speech. “Seatings were tight, and a successful service required everybody’s hands.”
As the restaurant evolved — eventually elevating its experience and moving downtown — so did its beverage program. After the move, Bailey, along with bar director Austin Hennelly, built a program that considers nonalcoholic cocktails and wines just as thoroughly as boozy beverages. In 2024 L.A. Times Food critic Bill Addison said Kato “is leading the evolution in nonalcoholic beverages.”
“From Day One we wanted to make sure that every person at the table, whether they were consuming alcohol or not, received the same intentional curation, thoughtful creativity and dedicated hospitality,” Bailey said. “That no matter what was in the glass you were raising to cheers, you felt as an equal in the celebration.”
Groundbreaking chef, cookbook author, restaurateur and media personality Nancy Silverton is the recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement award.
Nancy Silverton pictured in 2017.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
“Before I get started I just want to say that although I am so honored to receive this prestigious lifetime achievement award,” she said from the podium, “I want you to know that that doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere.” Silverton has trailblazed a career through the food industry, but has no plans of retiring anytime soon.
She began her cooking in L.A. restaurants such as Michael’s and Spago, then branched out with a restaurant of her own: the celebrated but since-shuttered Campanile, which she operated with her then-husband, the late Mark Peel. She launched La Brea Bakery, then debuted her trio of connected restaurants: Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza and Chi Spacca. More recently she’s partnered in local restaurants such as Max & Helen’s and Lapaba.
“She really opened my eyes to what bread could be, and then I think opened the whole city’s eyes about what bread can be,” L.A. Times general manager of Food Laurie Ochoa said in a prerecorded video. “One thing that Nancy has really contributed is the sense that, in this country, food is really personal, and she’s made food that makes us proud and makes us excited to eat.”
In February the James Beard Foundation honored Inglewood’s Serving Spoon restaurant as an American classic; on Monday night third-generation owners Jessica Bain and Justin Johnson appeared onstage to collect their medals. The distinction is awarded to “independently owned restaurants with timeless appeal,” and the Serving Spoon, founded in 1983, was honored by the foundation for its Southern cuisine and its effect on the community.
“The food is just a piece of the puzzle,” Johnson previously told The Times. “It’s the environment that you create, the way the staff greets you, the way somebody calls you by your first name.”
Two Angelenos also received the humanitarian of the year award.
Othón Nolasco, right, and Damián Diaz, co-founders of No Us Without You, pictured in 2020 when they began their nonprofit.
(Silvia Razgova / Los Angeles Times)
In a heart-rending prerecorded video, No Us Without You founders Othón Nolasco and Damián Diaz detailed their nonprofit’s pandemic-spurred beginnings. Their work provides groceries, pantry items and other items to undocumented back-of-house workers. They distribute over 10,000 pounds of food every quarter.
In addition to the award they will receive $20,000 to continue the work.
The L.A.-based Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights was also an Impact Awards honoree.
Farther north, Kevin Diedrich of San Francisco’s Pacific Cocktail Haven took home the award for outstanding professional in cocktail service.
Throughout the night restaurateurs, chefs, the mayor of Chicago, the governor of Illinois and others underscored the importance and inspiration of immigrant families and the many contributions of the industry’s undocumented workforce. It was also a night for cultural crossover. Hip-hop duo Run the Jewels presented the beverage awards (a nod to their new canned-beverage company). Jon Bon Jovi was there.
Food, the foundation’s representatives said, is an intersection of interests. “It’s really at the epicenter of what culture is,” Dawn Padmore, vice president of the foundation’s awards, said on the red carpet before the ceremony.
On Saturday the James Beard Foundation held its annual media awards ceremony, which recognized culinary coverage in journalism, broadcast and cookbooks. The event, also held in Chicago, awarded multiple L.A. nominees, including former Los Angeles Times writer Robert Lopez, who won the investigative reporting award for an exhaustive dive into the world of California’s child farmworkers. LA Times Studios, the branded-content arm of the company, won an award for commercial media.
View a recording of the 2026 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards here, and the foundation’s media awards can be found here.
Editor’s note: Stephanie Breijo, the author of this article, also won a James Beard media award; she was named the recipient of the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award.