Larder Chefs Among 2020 James Beard Award Semifinalists

This morning, the James Beard Foundation announced its list of semifinalists for the 30th annual James Beard Awards, and the foundation in charge of bestowing food’s most prestigious prize showed some love to one of Cleveland’s most interesting and forward-thinking restaurants.

Chefs Allie La Valle-Umansky, Jeremy Umansky and Kenny Scott of Larder Delicatessen & Bakery were nominated in the Best Chef Category for the Great Lakes Region, which includes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. The chefs were Cleveland’s only nominees on this year’s list.

The finalists will be announced on March 25.

Last year, Larder was nominated for Best New Restaurant, an award that went to New York City’s Frenchette. Jill Vedaa of Lakewood’s Salt was also nominated in the Best Chef category last year.

Larder, an experimental delicatessen in an 1800s Hingetown firehouse, was among our list of Best Restaurants in 2019. Chef Jeremy Umansky was also featured in our 2020 Most Interesting People issue, where he opened up about koji, foraging and his experimental cooking techniques.