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Arts and Culture
MPR News Staff

Mpls. chefs, writer nominated for James Beard Awards

Steven Brown
Steven Brown, of Tilia, tastes wine for the restaurant with wine consultant Angie Heitz, left, and Rinata restaurant manager Erin McIntosh, right, in October 2014 at the Linden Hills restaurant in Minneapolis. Brown is one of the five finalists for the Best Chef: Midwest category in this year's James Beard Awards.
Jennifer Simonson | MPR News

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Updated: May 5, 10 a.m. | Posted: May 4, 8:45 p.m.

Four chefs and a restaurant in the Twin Cities were named finalists for the 2020 James Beard Awards, the James Beard Foundation announced Monday.

The five finalists for the Best Chef: Midwest category include three Minneapolis chefs: Steven Brown of Tilia, Jamie Malone of Grand Café and Christina Nguyen of Hai Hai.

Demi, of Minneapolis, owned by chef Gavin Kaysen, is among 10 finalists for the Best New Restaurant. Diane Moua of Kaysen’s Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis, has been named one of the six Outstanding Pastry Chef finalists.

Among the media awards, Dara Moscowitz Grumdahl of Mpls.St. Paul Magazine is a finalist for the Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, while in the visual and audio technical excellence category, Jesse Roesler and Kevin Russell are nominated for “The Taste of Place – Wild Rice.”

The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists on the day originally set for the announcement of the winners, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the foundation to delay the glitzy ceremony. It’s now scheduled for Sept. 25 in Chicago, which will be broadcast live via the foundation’s Twitter feed.

The foundation says the industry it honors every year is going through tremendous upheaval as restaurants across the country stopped in person-dining amid stay at home orders, and some have gone out of business. In Minneapolis, former Beard award winner, The Bachelor Farmer closed recently.

The media awards will be announced by press release on May 27.

See the complete list of nominees here.