PROVIDENCE – The finalists in the 2019 James Beard Awards announced Wednesday included two Rhode Island chefs. For Best Chef: Northeast, two of the five chefs who will vie for the title are from Providence.
James Mark, chef and founder of “north” the Asian-influenced modern restaurant located in the Dean Hotel had been nominated for the first time. He joins chef Ben Sukle who was a semifinalist for his popular seafood-centric restaurant Oberlin which he owns with his wife. Sukle has been a semifinalist four times since 2014 for Oberlin as well as his original restaurant “birch”. Oberlin was previously nominated for a Best New Restaurant Beard award.
There were 20 semifinalists in the Northeast category with Rhode Island sending both its nominees through to the finals. The other three finalists were from the Boston area.
Both Sukle and Mark graduated in 2008 from Johnson and Wales University.
Sukle was also in the running Best Chef: Northeast in 2014, 2017 and 2018.
Sending two finalists to the Beard Awards puts Providence and Rhode Island in a select group of much larger locations. Ironically, Houston, the city where this year’s finalists were announced had no entries in the finals.
However, while it is a first for two chefs and two restaurants from Providence to be finalists, it is not the first time two chefs have represented the city. In 1993, husband and wife George Germon and Johanne Killeen, chef-owners of Al Forno, were not only finalists but that year’s winners of Best Chef: Northeast.
Since 1990 when the awards were introduced, numerous chefs and restaurateurs from Rhode Island have been nominees and semifinalists. In addition, there have been other award winners from the state. Food writer Linda Beaulieu won a journalism James Beard in 1994. In 2007, Aunt Carrie’s and proprietor Elsie Foy won an honorary award in the category America’s Classics.
The James Beard Foundation Awards, considered the Oscars of the foodservice industry, will be presented May 6 in Chicago.
Bruce Newbury is a PBN contributing writer.
