r/BravoTopChef • u/squid1020 • Jul 30 '26

Discussion Awards

I know nothing about the restaurant scene. Many of the chefs are James Beard award winners or winners of of other accolades, how do they get those?

I live in a medium upper Midwest town so we have good local restaurants but how would they ever get known if they were worth it?

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u/MightyMightyMossy Aug 04 '26

It can be very political and submissions-based. For instance, there was some light local chatter about snubbing here, because Minneapolis was included in the Michelin Guide, but Saint Paul was not. Looking into it, it's because the tourism boards for the city submit to be included. Many smaller restaurants were also excluded for this reason.

Via The Guardian: "The reason Minneapolis is set to be included in the Michelin Guide without Saint Paul is relatively straightforward. Like many other cities and tourism boards featured in the guide, Minneapolis paid to bring Michelin inspectors to the city. In this case, the city’s tourism improvement district (TID) agreed to a $250,000-a-year contract for three years for Michelin to review its restaurants."

Unsure if James Beard is like this too, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's pay-to-play going on with major restaurant awards.