We know New Jersey has some of the best food in the country, and now a few of our chefs and restaurants are being honored with one of the world’s most esteemed culinary awards.
Two New Jersey chefs and one restaurant are semifinalists for the 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards from the James Beard Foundation, which honors the best food, food media and food systems, and are committed to racial and gender equity, community and sustainability.
Lita in Aberdeen is nominated for Best New Restaurant. Lita is the third restaurant from Nelly Robinson and Chef David Viana, who worked together on Heirloom Kitchen Chef’s Table & Cooking School in Old Bridge, and the award-winning Heirloom at The St. Laurent in Asbury Park. It’s a celebration of David’s family, who immigrated from Portugal to Newark in the 1970s.
At first glance it may seem like an odd choice, considering the Iberian restaurant is in a strip mall next to an old bowling alley. But in November, Lita was named one of The 50 Best New Restaurants in America according to Esquire magazine.
In the Best Chef category for the Mid-Atlantic Region, Dane DeMarco of Gass & Main in Haddonfield is one of two NJ chefs recognized on the extensive list. Brunch has gnocchi mac & cheese, Mason’s pork roll, a lunch truck gyro, pumpkin pretty toast and vegan benedict. Dinner options include pumpkin hummus, chips & caviar, winter flautas, orange pomegranate shrimp, glazed trumpet mushroom and New England monkfish.
Nur-E Gulshan Rahman is also among the hundreds of chefs throughout the country considered to be top-notch, mostly for his homestyle, halal Bangladeshi dishes at Korai Kitchen in Jersey City.
Try the begun bhorta (eggplant mash), fish curry, coconut milk chicken curry, shrimp dopiaza, and phirni rice pudding for dessert.
Nominees will be announced on April 3 and winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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