Denver is officially home to the best chef in the Southwest .
On Monday night, Alex Seidel ofMercantile Dining & Provision was announced as the winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Southwest category, which includes Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
The James Beard Awards, established in 1990 and doled out annually, are considered the top honor in the food industry, a.k.a. “the Oscars of the food world,” according to the .
“I was quite surprised and just blown away with emotion, being there with my team and my wife,” Seidel said. “It was pretty special.”
It’s a bit of déjà vu for Denver, as Siedel follows fellow Denverite and “Top Chef Masters” contestant Jennifer Jasinski (of Euclid Hall,and others), who won the same award in 2013. Along with Seidel’s former boss Frank Bonanno (the chef behind Mizuna, Luca de Italia, Osteria Marco and others), Jasinski was one of a handful who helped kick start the Mile High City’s ongoing food renaissance.
“I was watching the live feed and texted him as soon as I saw it,” Jasinski said. “It’s so cool that Denver now has two chefs who have been recognized by the James Beard Foundation. It couldn’t have happened to a more awesome person, and he’s got a great team of people that work for him, so I’m really, really thrilled.”
Of course, Seidel has long been acclaimed for his restaurant Fruition, which has remained among the city’s top eateries since it opened in 2007, following Seidel’s stints at Mizuna and other restaurants. Seidel or one of his eateries has gotten nominated as a finalist or semi-finalist in the Beard awards every year for the past decade, according to Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo.
“This just further validates the emergence of Denver as a culinary destination,” Imbergamo said. “There’s a lot of secondary markets that have become big-deal food cities recently, like Nashville. But it took five years betweenJames Beard Best Chef: Southwest winners here, so I don’t think anything is guaranteed.”
Indeed, Denver’s reputation as a food city — reinforced with an April article in that dubbed it one of the country’s most exciting rising culinary markets — is quite new, and almost something of a surprise to more established food centers in Colorado such as Boulder or Aspen (the latter of which is a celebrity-chef gathering spot during the annual Food & Wine Classic).
Colorado has boasted of James Beard award winners in the past, including Boulder’s Frasca, which won for its wine program in 2013 and its chef, Lachlan Makinnon-Patterson, in 2008. In 2014, the awards also recognized Denver author Adrian Miller for his book “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time.”
But chefs? That’s a decidedly recent phenomenon, Seidel said.
“Honestly, I can’t say when I moved here in 2002 that we were necessarily deserving of that type of recognition,” he said. “But we’ve grown as a community and we’ve cultivated young chefs from other cities. And now that we have things like Slow Food Denver and the American Cheese Society and ‘Top Chef,’ we’re getting national chefs through the city more regularly.”
In fact, as Seidel talked to The Denver Post over the phone, he was driving to an advisory board meeting for this year’s Slow Food festival, which is slated for July 13-15. He’s already thinking of ways to program the tradition-minded food event to spread more chefs and foodies evenly around the city.
“It forces people to book hotels, spend time in our city, eat at our restaurants and see what’s happening,” he said. “I think it’s really opening up a lot of people’s eyes.”
Colorado’s much-vaunted population and tourism boom, which is drawing trendy bars and entertainment concepts to town, has gotten too much credit for invigorating the food scene, Imbergamo warned.
“This whole thing about bars like Death & Co coming to Denver and being the saving grace for the bar scene is just such B.S.,” he said. “On the restaurant side, the difference between today and ten years ago is that all of these (chefs) are coming off the bench. There are three restaurants that will open in the next five weeks — Ad Hominem, Brightmarten and Super Mega Bien — that are all owned or run by Rioja alumni. Those are people who labored away and served their time and are now activating.”
Differentiating one restaurant from another in Denver has become increasingly vital. That’s why Seidel’sMercantile, which opened in Denver’s Union Station in 2015, was an aesthetic departure from Fruition when it first started serving food. “A contemporary room that seats 75, it is sleek to the point of stark,” according to former Denver Post food critic William Porter.
Seidel went straight from Denver International Airport to Mercantile on Tuesday afternoon, then gathered his wife and kids and joined his chef de cuisine, Matt Vawter, at a hospital to visit with Vawter’s new baby boy.
“I spent a lot of time reflecting yesterday, just thinking about all the people I’ve worked with and for, and the special people along the way who are part of the journey that made it even that much sweeter. I’ve heard from people in every nook and cranny of the industry (congratulating him) on the win,” he said, before sheepishly adding: “Quite honestly, I still have 104 texts to go through.”
Check out the full list of winners:
2018 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards
Best New Restaurant
JuneBaby
Seattle
Outstanding Baker (Presented by Taylor Precision Products)
Belinda Leong and Michel Suas
B. Patisserie
San Francisco
Outstanding Bar Program (Presented by Woodford Reserve Bourbon)
Cure
New Orleans
Outstanding Chef (Presented by All-Clad Metalcrafters)
Gabrielle Hamilton
Prune
NYC
Outstanding Pastry Chef (Presented by Lavazza)
Dolester Miles
Highlands Bar & Grill
Birmingham, AL
Outstanding Restaurant (Presented by S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water)
Highlands Bar & Grill
Birmingham, AL
Outstanding Restaurateur
Caroline Styne
The Lucques Group(Lucques, a.o.c., Tavern, and others)
Los Angeles
Outstanding Service
Zuni Café
San Francisco
Outstanding Wine Program (Presented by Robert Mondavi Winery)
FIG
Charleston, SC
Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional
Miljenko Grgich
Grgich Hills Estate
Rutherford, CA
Rising Star Chef of the Year (Presented by S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water)
Camille Cogswell
Zahav
Philadelphia
Best Chef: Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)
Abraham Conlon
Fat Rice
Chicago
Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (D.C., DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)
Jeremiah Langhorne
The Dabney
Washington, D.C.
Best Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)
Gavin Kaysen
Spoon and Stable
Minneapolis
Best Chef: New York City (Five Boroughs)
Missy Robbins
Lilia
Brooklyn, NY
Best Chef: Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY STATE, RI, VT)
Karen Akunowicz
Myers + Chang
Boston
Best Chef: Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY)
Edouardo Jordan
Salare
Seattle
Best Chef: South (AL, AR, FL, LA, MS, PR)
Nina Compton
Compère Lapin
New Orleans
Best Chef: Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)
Rodney Scott
Rodney Scott’s BBQ
Charleston, SC
Best Chef: Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, OK, TX, UT)
Alex Seidel
Mercantile Dining & Provision
Denver
Best Chef: West (CA, HI, NV)
Dominique Crenn
Atelier Crenn
San Francisco
