James Beard Foundation removes three chefs, adds one to list of award nominees

After much hullabaloo over designing a fairer, more equitable system for selecting the country’s best chefs and restaurants, the James Beard Foundation evidently forgot to fact-check its list of semifinalists, Eater DC reports. Last week, the organization un-nominated three chefs ahead of its annual award ceremony—not because they did anything wrong, but because they were not currently working. The rules say that a chef has to be actively working now, and nominated restaurants have to be open and offering sit-down service. Hard to know what’s what these days with the pace of restaurant closures and staff moves. One of the removed chefs had departed his post at a Washington restaurant just two weeks before the chef nominations were announced. The Beards also added one chef, Chicago’s Jason Vincent, to its outstanding chef category. Vincent had initially been left out due to a “clerical error.” —H. Claire Brown