An L.A. chef just took home the James Beard Award for Best Chef: California
Jon Yao, the Taiwanese American chef behind Michelin-starred Kato in the Arts District, took home one of the top prizes at the James Beard Foundation Awards—the only nominee in Southern California to do so. The annual awards ceremony, which takes place in Chicago (almost) every year, recognizes excellence in restaurants, bars and food media, including books, broadcast media and journalism and is widely understood as the Oscars of the (American) food world.
In 2016, Yao first opened Kato inside a West L.A. strip mall, and moving the restaurant to the Arts District in 2022. Immediately, the then-scrappy restaurant attracted the attention of critics for its uniquely Asian American spin on fine dining. Over the years, the self-taught chef has honed his craft and grown into one of the city's best restaurants, at least if you ask me. In 2022, Kato earned its first Michelin star; last year, the restaurant was named as 'one to watch' by the World's 50 Best Restaurants organization, which has yet to name any L.A. eatery to its prestigious annual list.
'The restaurant and the food we serve [at Kato], it's really a medium for storytelling. It's representative of a lot of immigrant stories,' Yao said in a backstage interview clip provided to media. 'There's a lot more restaurants like ours. It's not just ours. We're very proud to be part of that fabric.'
Like last year, just one L.A. restaurant, bar or food media publication has taken home a national James Beard Award. In the spring, five other local restaurants, bars, bakeries and writers were nominated for various awards, including Long Beach's Gusto Bread for 'Outstanding Bakery' and Tobin Shea, bar director behind Redbird in Downtown L.A., for 'Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service.' On Saturday, newly L.A. based writer and native Angeleno Jeff Gordinier also took home the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for 'The City that Rice Built,' a long-form piece featuring Charleston, South Carolina in Food & Wine.
While Yao's restaurant is already a popular destination among wealthier, in-the-know local diners and tasting menu fans from far and wide, it's been a surprisingly easy reservation to book most days of the week, at least until now. If you haven't yet booked a table at Kato, now might be a good time to do that—before everyone else does.
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