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On June 10, the James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards at a gala ceremony in Chicago. Portland, which had a landmark year at the 2023 media and restaurant ceremonies, took home awards in two big categories last night: Langbaan, Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom’s Thai tasting menu restaurant, won Outstanding Restaurant and Gregory Gourdet was named Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific for his work at Buckman’s Kann.
The James Beard Foundation bestows Outstanding Restaurant, one of its most coveted awards, to a restaurant that “demonstrates consistent excellence in food, atmosphere, hospitality, and operations while contributing positively to its broader community.” The 2024 recipient of the award, Langbaan, is a 24-seat Thai restaurant from Ninsom and his team. In its dining room behind Phuket Cafe, Langbaan serves a five-course tasting menu with dishes such as kanom krok and tom nam dum.
The restaurant opened in 2014 in the back of Ninsom’s Southeast 28th restaurant Paa Dee, where it quickly gained a following for its Thai dishes rarely seen in Portland. In 2021, it relocated to its current location in Northwest Portland. Langbaan was previously a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2015. Ninsom was named a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2018, 2019, and 2020; in 2022 he made it to the finalist round in the same category.
Gregory Gourdet was the winner of Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific, marking the third time the chef has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation in as many years. In 2023, his Haitian wood-fire restaurant Kann was awarded Best New Restaurant, and in 2022, his debut cookbook Everyone’s Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health won the Best Cookbook — General category. Last week, news broke that Gourdet had been named the culinary director of five restaurants within the forthcoming New York City location of Paris luxury department store Printemps.
The full list of 2024 James Beard Award winners can be found here.
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. All editorial content, including this post, is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.
