Courtesy of Kado no Mise
It was an evening of disappointment for Minnesota at Monday’s 2026 James Beard Awards. In a melancholy contrast to recent years—which saw multiple nominations and awards for Twin Cities chefs, restaurants, and food writers—the North Star State had only one representative at the 2026 awards. Shigeyuki Furukawa, of Minneapolis’ Kado no Mise and Kaiseki Furukawa, was one of five regional chefs nominated in the Best Chef: Midwest category, but Furukawa lost to Missouri’s Loryn Nalic.
The awards, which were held last night in Chicago, honor chefs, restaurateurs, cookbooks, and other food-scene folks from around the country. Minnesota has had many notable wins in years past: Christina Nguyen, of Minneapolis’ Hai Hai, won Best Chef: Midwest in 2024; Sean Sherman, of Owmani and the new Indígena, took home Best New Restaurant for Owamni in 2022 and Best American Cookbook for “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen” in 2018.
Sherman’s newest cookbook, “Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America,” was nominated this year for a James Beard Media Award in the U.S. Foodways category but lost to Sarah Ahn and Nam Soon Ahn’s “Umma: A Korean Mom’s Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes.” The media awards, held on June 13, were hosted by another Minnesotan with serious chef credentials: Andrew Zimmern.
