3 April 2024
Dakar NOLA is up for best new restaurant. | Josh Brasted/Eater
Three NOLA chefs and restaurants are on the Beard Foundation’s shortlist this year
Three New Orleans chefs and restaurants are James Beard Award finalists this year, emerging from a pool of nine 2024 semifinalists. Dakar NOLA is a nominee for Best New Restaurant and Jewel of the South is nominated for Outstanding Bar — both are national categories. Chef Arvinder Vilkhu of Saffron is nominated for Best Chef, South, a regional category that covers Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Puerto Rico.
Chef Serigne Mbaye’s Dakar NOLA, which has forged new pathways for Senegalese cuisine in the Crescent City, was one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2023 — Mbaye was a James Beard finalist in the Emerging Chef Category in both 2022 and 2023.
This is a first-time nomination for Jewel of the South, though bar director Chris Hannah is a Beard Award winner for his previous work at Arnaud’s French 75, which won the award for Outstanding Bar in 2017. Chef Arvinder Vilkhu is a first-time nominee in the Best Chef, South category; Saffron was a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant shortly after it opened in 2018.
Find the full list of 2024 finalists here. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on Monday, June 10.
Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2024. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.