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These Are the Big Colorado Winners From the 2024 James Beard Awards

The James Beard Awards’ Restaurant and Chefs ceremony was held in Chicago on Monday, June 10

by Nicole Adlman
A composite image with the text “James Beard Awards” superimposed over a red and blue textured layout.
The James Beard Awards’ Restaurant and Chefs ceremony has come and gone, and Colorado won big.
Photo illustration by Lille Allen; see below for full credits
Nicole Adlman is a cities manager at Eater overseeing editorial operations for city sites in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland, Houston, Nashville, New Orleans, and Denver. She earned a master’s degree in multidisciplinary writing at the University of Southern California.

The vaunted “Oscars of the food world,” or the James Beard Foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards, were held last night, June 10, in Chicago — and one Breckenridge, Colorado restaurant and a lauded restaurant group with restaurants in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, won big.

Erika Whitaker and Kelly Whitaker of the Boulder-based Id Est Hospitality group, whose restaurant collection includes the seminal BRUTØ and the Wolf’s Tailor tasting menu restaurants, took home the medal in the Outstanding Restaurateur category. The group also runs boppy Denver hand roll and spirits bar OK Yeah, tucked within its Hey Kiddo restaurant; Boulder, Colorado Italian restaurant Basta; and the Boulder-based bakery and mill Dry Storage. Matt Vawter, of Breckenridge, Colorado’s Rootstalk, won in the Best Chef: Mountain category. Rootstalk offers both a la carte and chef’s counter tasting menu experiences, with a focus on hyper-seasonality (its latest menu covers “late spring”) and delicate preparations.

The James Beard Awards have been running since 1991 as a program that recognizes and celebrates exceptional talent within the food and hospitality industry (a separate Media awards ceremony is typically held ahead of the Restaurants and Chefs program). After the cancellation of its 2020 and 2021 ceremonies, which included an internal audit to make its voting processes more inclusive and equitable, the awards returned in 2022.

The Whitakers and Vawter were among four Colorado-based finalists nominated in April; Penelope Wong, of Yuan Wonton in Denver, also received a nod. Congratulations to the Colorado winners and nominees.

Watch the 2024 James Beard Awards Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony here:

Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2024. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.

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