Christina Nguyen, the chef behind popular Minneapolis restaurants Hai Hai and Hola Arepa, won a James Beard Award — one of the country’s most prestigious culinary prizes — this week for Best Chef: Midwest.
This year’s awards were announced Monday night in Chicago, and Nguyen was presented with the medal by local chef Ann Kim, who won the Midwest award in 2019 for pizza restaurant Young Joni.
Nguyen has been nominated for the award four times before this year, and this is her first win.
At the 2024 Beards, Nguyen was the only local finalist to take home an award. Chef Ann Ahmed (Khâluna, Gai Noi, Lat 14) was also nominated in the regional Midwest category, and Ora by Nixta, a Northeast Minneapolis spot run by chefs Gustavo and Kate Romero, was up for the national Best New Restaurant but lost to a restaurant in New Orleans.
Two St. Paul chefs, Marc Heu of Marc Heu Patisserie Paris and Karyn Tomlinson of Myriel, made the longlist of semi-finalists earlier this year, but neither was nominated to advance to the finals.
James Beard Awards are given out in 22 categories — 10 national and 12 regional — and the Best Chef: Midwest category spans Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
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