Table Talk: James Beards Awards + Michelin
March 31 — Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the table.
Today’s newsletter is all about those two coveted awards restaurants and chefs chase every year: James Beard and Michelin.
The James Beard Foundation just announced the finalists for the 2026 awards, and an Atlanta chef, one restaurant, and a restaurant group will head to Chicago in June. Meanwhile, Michelin dropped the date and location for this year’s Guide to the American South reveal ceremony. I’ll share all those details below.
With Passover beginning tomorrow, Daily Chew owner Julia Kesler Imerman shared her recipe for grated lemon chicken soup with matzah balls. The soup is also part of the Seder menu from Daily Chew this year.
Lastly, look for my Editor’s Pick restaurant recommendations to return in next week’s “Family Meal.”
Until then, cheers!
🍸 Beth
🫒🥂 Taste of Atlanta is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with an epic night of two dozen chef-driven tastings, craft cocktails, wine and beer tastes, live music, and electric energy! April 16 from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Works. Tickets are on sale here. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Atlanta’s James Beard Awards Finalists
🏅 The James Beard Foundation just announced the 2026 finalists in the chef and restaurant categories. The foundation’s culinary awards, which take place annually in Chicago, are known as the “Oscars of the food world.”
Out of the 11 semifinalists from Atlanta and Georgia in 2026, Chef J. Trent Harris of Mujō and the team from Aria, along with Meherwan and Molly Irani of Chai Pani Restaurant Group (Asheville/Atlanta), will head to the ceremony in June as finalists. Lucky Star, Madeira Park, Taurean Philpott (Avize), Claudia Martinez (Bar ANA), and Carlo Gan and Mia Orino (Kamayan ATL) were among the semifinalists from Atlanta this year.
Finalists headed to Chicago
Best Chef: Southeast: J. Trent Harris, Mujō, Howell Mill Road
Outstanding Hospitality: Aria, Buckhead
Outstanding Restaurateur: Meherwan Irani and Molly Irani, Chai Pani Restaurant Group (Chai Pani and Botiwalla), Asheville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Decatur
Other 2026 semifinalists
Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service: Taurean Philpott, Avize, Westside
Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service: Miles Macquarrie, Kimball House, Decatur
Outstanding Pastry Chef/Baker: Claudia Martinez, Bar ANA, Poncey-Highland
Best Chef: Southeast
- Carlo Gan and Mia Orino, Kamayan ATL, Chamblee
- Freddy Money, Atlas, Buckhead
- Todd Schafer, Abel Brown, Augusta
Best New Bar
- Lucky Star, Star Metals
- Madeira Park, Poncey-Highland
🧑🍳 The Castellucci Hospitality Group opened Mujō in 2022 on Howell Mill Road next door to its Basque-style restaurant Cooks & Soldiers. Harris led the intimate omakase restaurant to critical acclaim, including helping it earn one Michelin star three years in a row. The Castellucci Group and Harris hope to follow up on Mujō’s breakout success with Koshu Club, a Japanese supper club opening in Buckhead this spring.
Backed by Meherwan and Molly Irani, Chai Pani-Asheville won Outstanding Restaurant at the James Beard Awards in 2022. The couple also own a location of Chai Pani in Decatur, as well as locations of Botiwalla in Charlotte, Asheville, and at Ponce City Market in Atlanta.
🥂 This becomes Aria’s second consecutive trip to the James Beard Awards, nominated again for Outstanding Hospitality. In 2025, Aria was the lone representative from Georgia at the awards. The medal ultimately went to Atomix in New York City.
But the James Beard nod in 2025 served as a parting tribute to Aria owner Gerry Klaskala and his decades-long restaurant career. The Atlanta chef had officially retired from the industry earlier that year. Klaskala handed ownership of Aria over to his longtime general manager Andrés Loaiza, with the kitchen now led by Chef Joseph Harrison.
In 2024, Talat Market chefs Parnass Savang and Rod Lassiter were the lone Georgia representatives at the James Beard Awards, nominated for Best Chef: Southeast. The award went to Paul Smith of 1010 Bridge in Charleston, West Virginia.
Terry Koval, who won Best Chef: Southeast in 2023, also ended up being the only representative from Georgia that year. The Best Chef: Southeast category encompasses chefs from Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
☑️ The voting body for the James Beard Awards comprises around 500 judges, many of whom are past winners from both the food media and restaurant industries. Voting takes place anonymously online. Restaurant, chef, and media awards submissions open in the fall for consideration by the various James Beard Foundation nominating committees.
Check out the complete list of the 2026 James Beard Awards chef and restaurant finalists from around the country. Winners are announced during an awards ceremony at the Lyric Opera theater in Chicago on June 15.
Get inspired at the Druid Hills Home and Garden Tour!
SPONSORED BY DRUID HILLS CIVIC ASSOCATION
🏠 Step inside some of Atlanta’s most beautiful homes during the 2026 Historic Druid Hills Home and Garden Tour, April 17–19, where design and everyday living come together with ease.
For those who love cooking and sharing a great meal, the Tour highlights inviting eat-in kitchens, warm dining spaces, and interiors designed for real life. It’s a chance to gather ideas, notice thoughtful details, and see how well-designed homes support the way people cook, host, and connect around the table.
➞ See the homes, learn more, and buy tickets here.
Michelin Will Reveal 2026 Guide to
the American South in October
🛞 In other awards news this week, Michelin announced the date and location for the 2026 Guide to the American South reveal ceremony. The ceremony will take place on Oct. 21 in Nashville at The Pinnacle theater.
“Last year marked a momentous year for the American South as we proudly introduced the very first U.S. regional selection of restaurants to travelers both near and far,” Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guide, said in a press release. “As our anonymous Inspectors prepare the restaurant selection for 2026, Nashville stood out as a fitting backdrop for the ceremony thanks to its vibrant entertainment culture, local food influences and shining culinary talent.”
Now that the newly formed Michelin Guide to the American South, which folded in the previous Atlanta guide, has had time to gel, it will be interesting to see whether more local restaurants make the cut in 2026, or if any currently listed restaurants drop off.
🤔 With an Atlanta guide already in existence, featuring more than 55 establishments, our restaurant scene felt like a bit of an afterthought for Michelin’s anonymous dining inspectors last year. Very little changed for Atlanta. Banshee shifted from Bib Gourmand to recommended in 2025, joining a list of 41 other Atlanta recommended restaurants. Eight new restaurants earned recommendations, including Staplehouse, which lost its star after Chef Ryan Smith and Kara Hidinger relocated the tasting menu to their new restaurant in Gay, GA. All other restaurants maintained status, including one star for Atlas, Lazy Betty, Bacchanalia, Hayakawa, Mujō, O by Brush, Omakase Table, and Spring.
And here’s hoping this year’s ceremony in Nashville won’t be quite as anticlimactic as last year’s reveal in Greenville. The 2025 guide was unceremoniously leaked as a press release hours before the big announcement that night. It appeared a scheduling snafu with the press release was to blame. The leak read ’round the South was all anyone could talk about in Greenville and on social media.
🙏 Rough Draft plans to be at the Michelin ceremony again this year, pending press credentials.
Recipe: Daily Chew’s Grated Lemon
Chicken Soup with Matzah Balls
🐔 This week, we’re sharing the recipe for grated lemon chicken soup with matzah balls from Julia Kesler Imerman, owner of Daily Chew. The soup is part of the Atlanta restaurant’s Passover menu.
While matzah ball soup is a Seder centerpiece, it can be eaten all week long. Imerman’s recipe is also hearty enough as a full meal.
🥂 Taste of Atlanta is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with an epic night of two dozen chef-driven tastings, craft cocktails, wine and beer tastes, live music, and electric energy! April 16 from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Works. Tickets are on sale here. SPONSOR MESSAGE
➡️ Get double the Atlanta food and dining coverage with “Family Meal,” edited by Beth McKibben, on Tuesdays at 5 p.m., and “Side Dish,” edited by Sarra Sedghi, on Thursdays at noon. Subscribe to both here. ⬅️
