Korean-American chef nominated for James Beard award

By Yi Whan-woo

Rachel Yang, a Korean-American cook, was nominated for Best Chef in the northwestern United States at the James Beard Awards.

Dubbed “the Oscars of food,” the annual award is named after late acclaimed American chef James Beard and is presented to the finest chefs, restaurants and other culinary professionals in the U.S.

The James Beard Foundation, the organizer of the annual award, said on its website that Yang and her husband, Seif Chirchi, jointly received the nomination among six restaurant owners from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

Yang and Chirchi run Joule, a westernized Korean restaurant in Seattle, Washington. They have been nominated for Best Chef for three consecutive years.

The couple met while working at a restaurant in New York City. They opened Joule in 2007 after marrying and moving to Seattle.

According to Joule website, Yang and Chirchi “re-imagined Joule as a contemporary Korean steakhouse serving nontraditional cuts of beef, and reopened it in an expanded space” in 2013.

That year, the restaurant was named one of the Best New Restaurants in America by Bon Appetit magazine.

At least five nominees each from 10 regions across the mainland U.S. will compete for Best Chef in their respective areas.

The other regions include Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, New York City, Northeast, South, Southeast, Southwest and West.

The successful candidates from each region will be announced on May 1 during the James Beard Awards Gala in Chicago.

Over 24,000 U.S. restaurants and their chefs have made their bid for this year’s award.

The foundation said the candidates are those “who have set new or consistent standards of excellence in their respective regions” with working experience of at least five years.

The James Beard Awards was established in 1990, four years after the foundation was set up.