Immigration was front and center for James Beard Award winners: ‘I refuse to let fear be the headline’
Immigration is the backbone of the restaurant industry. At Monday night’s James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago, the topic of immigration was front and center.
“This administration has spent the last year hunting these people, chasing them down and detaining them and forcing them to leave the country,” said Outstanding Restaurateur winner Dana Street during his acceptance speech. “To want to deport people like that who do so much for this industry and detain them and bind them up and basically bully them into going home is despicable.”
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Considered by some to be the Oscars of the food world, the James Beard Awards is a yearly awards ceremony honoring those who demonstrate exceptional talent, innovation and commitment to sustainability, equity and community in the food system. At this year’s awards ceremony, diversity and inclusion were major discussion points, with many acceptance speeches underscoring its importance, particularly at a time when White House efforts have moved to revoke it.
Adrian Torres – executive chef of Maximo in West University Place, Texas, and the winner of the Emerging Chef award – talked about how, when he was growing up, his parents warned him to never tell anyone about his legal status.
“For a long time, fear was our story,” he said. “Today, standing on this stage, I want to say something that I never thought my younger self would have the opportunity to say: I am proud to be the son of immigrants. I am proud to be an immigrant. I am proud to be a DACA recipient.”
“Tonight, I refuse to let fear be the headline,” he continued. “Tonight, the headline is that a brown kid from the northside raised by parents who sacrificed everything for the chance at a better life is standing on this stage accepting one of the highest honors in this industry.”
For Korean American pastry chef Susan Bae of Moon Rabbit in Washington, D.C., winning the Outstanding Pastry Chef award recognized not only her achievements, but her community and the generations before her.
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“Representation matters. Being invited into the room matters,” she said. “But what matters even more is knowing that you’ll be supported once you’re there. Representation is more than visibility. It’s belonging. It’s knowing that people can show up as themselves, stand up for others, and remain true to their values.”
Leishla Maldonado – owner of cocktail bar LOMA in Providence, Rhode Island and winner of the Best New Bar award – echoed similar sentiments. She explained that she and her team come from immigrant and working-class families and that they bet everything on themselves to open LOMA.
She said that the award “belongs to everyone who has ever wondered whether they were qualified enough, connected enough or secure enough to pursue what they love. Because sometimes courage is being terrified and doing it anyway … To every immigrant kid watching tonight, there is room for you at this table.”
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