Chef Charlie Mitchell Is New York’s James Beard Winner

At last night’s James Beard Foundation Chef and Restaurant Awards, Charlie Mitchell was named the Best Chef in New York, beating out fellow nominees such as Jeremy Salamon from Agi’s Counter and Nasim Alikhani of Sofreh.

Mitchell’s restaurant, Clover Hill, is a 20-seat fine-dining tasting room in Brooklyn Heights, with a Michelin star — Mitchell was the first Black chef in the city to earn the distinction — and a $305 buy-in for reservations. (At least one diner, Khruangbin’s Laura Lee, has publicly expressed admiration for the restaurant’s soundtrack.) Michell, who grew up in Detroit, told us earlier this year that he’s been cooking in one form or another since he was 6 years old. “I grew up in a fairly large family on both my mom’s and my dad’s side,” he said back in February. “Cooking was something that we did for any reason — good, bad, or sad.”

Mitchell’s win was the lone victory for the city’s restaurants at the ceremony, whose national honors were otherwise dominated by operators in midsize markets. The Outstanding Chef honor went to Michael Rafidi of Albi in Washington, D.C.; the Outstanding Restaurant was Langbaan in Portland, Oregon; and Best New Restaurant was awarded to Dakar NOLA, which got its start as a pop-up and opened as a permanent location in 2022.

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