Several St. Louis-area chefs and restaurants are among the semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation’s annual awards, which were announced Wednesday.
The James Beard Awards are returning in 2022 after a two-year hiatus. The 2020 awards were canceled before the winners were announced. No awards were held in 2021. During the hiatus, the James Beard Foundation conducted an audit of its awards and changed its procedures.
Four St. Louis-area chefs are among the semifinalists for the “Best Chef: Midwest” category: Rob Connoley of Bulrush, Craig Rivard of Little Fox, Evy Swoboda of Brasserie by Niche and Ben Welch of Botanica. The Midwest category covers restaurants in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Rob Connoley
Photo by Sid Hastings
Connoley was previously a semifinalist in 2014 for “Best Chef: Southwest” at his Silver City, New Mexico, restaurant the Curious Kumquat. He returned to his native St. Louis area in 2016 and in 2019 opened Bulrush, which explores historical Ozark cuisine through local ingredients and modern techniques.
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The semifinalist nod was a “huge shock,” Connoley said. “And then, very quickly, my thoughts switched over to how … amazing it is. Not just for my staff, but (for) all these community partners that we have: the farmers, the archivists, the families who share their history with me. It’s such a neat thing to know that the Ozarks are getting their due, like so many other cuisines have in this country.”
Evy Swoboda, now the executive chef of Brasserie by Niche, in a Post-Dispatch file photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Rivard, Swoboda and Welch are first-time semifinalists.
Rivard and his wife, Mowgli, opened Little Fox in late 2019 in the city’s Fox Park neighborhood. He was headed into the gym when Mowgli called with the news, “so I didn’t really even have any time to process it.”
Little Fox has already generated national attention. In October, the New York Times named it one of the 50 restaurants nationwide the paper was “most excited about right now.”
Rivard said he and Mowgli “just set out to do a neighborhood restaurant in our neighborhood, and to get national recognition is pretty cool for doing that.”
Swoboda is one of two semifinalist nods for Brasserie by Niche this year. Elise Mensing is a first-time semifinalist for “Outstanding Pastry Chef,” a nationwide category.
“I’m super excited,” Swoboda said. “I was almost more excited for my pastry chef be on there. She’s been here for a long time, and it’s super deserved.”
Swoboda took over as Brasserie by Niche executive chef last year. Her arrival also marked her return to Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group. She had previously led the kitchen at Craft’s Pastaria. Between Pastaria and Brasserie, she was the chef of the Last Kitchen at the Last Hotel.
“I’m lucky to have the team that I have right now,” Swoboda said. “They’re superstars so I definitely can’t take the credit without them.”
Chef Ben Welch sprinkles seasoning on smoked chicken at Big Baby Q and Smokehouse on June 30, 2016.
Welch was the inaugural chef for Botanica, which opened in October in Wildwood. He said he “shed some tears” on hearing the news.
“You go through the motions, and you want (the honor), but you don’t think it’s gonna happen,” he said.
Welch is no longer the chef at Botanica, however. He left the restaurant in January, owner Ryan Sherring said.
“We’re very proud of what Ben has done for Botanica,” Sherring said. “We’re very proud of his culinary skills and helping us get set up. He has stepped away to pursue other endeavors as is common in this industry, and we wish him every bit of luck in his career.”
Welch said he is currently working on a cookbook and scouting locations for Lucy Quinn, the restaurant concept he first debuted as a pop-up in 2018 at his late Maryland Heights barbecue restaurant Big Baby Q and Smokehouse.
Chef Ben Grupe in the dining room of his restaurant, Tempus
Ben Grupe of Tempus is a semifinalist for the national “Emerging Chef” category. The category, new this year, honors a chef “who displays exceptional talent, character, and leadership ability, and who is likely to make a significant impact in years to come,” according to the James Beard Foundation’s description. Grupe was previously a semifinalist for “Best Chef: Midwest” in 2018 for his work at Elaia.
“It’s always nice to get recognized for what you do as your craft,” Grupe said. “I’m just proud of everybody I work with on a day-to-day basis, proud of our team. The team deserves just as much recognition as I do.”
Vicia is a semifinalist for both “Best Bar Program” and “Best Wine Program,” both nationwide categories. The restaurant was a semifinalist for “Best New Restaurant” nationwide in 2017. Chef-owner Michael Gallina was a finalist for “Best Chef: Midwest” in the 2019 and the canceled 2020 awards.
Co-owner Tara Gallina praised Phil Ingram for Vicia’s cocktails, which feature ingredients from the restaurant’s garden, and Kara Flaherty for its wine program.
“We’ve basically made our entire wine list accessible by the glass and have had so much fun in kind of opening people up to new things and constantly having wine pairings change as fast as our menu does,” Gallina said.
The finalists in each category are slated to be announced March 16. The James Beard Awards ceremony is June 13 in Chicago. The full list of 2022 semifinalists is available here.
Editor’s note: Post-Dispatch restaurant critic Ian Froeb was a member of the James Beard Foundation’s restaurants and chefs awards committee from 2013 to 2021. He is not involved in the 2022 awards.