See the chefs who turned out for the 2026 James Beard Awards

Since Chicago nabbed the James Beard Awards from New York in 2015, the food world’s top annual honors have been a point of local civic pride. The event draws the country’s top chefs and food personalities to town for a few days of eating, drinking and honoring each other, with a gastronomic afterparty filled with booze, a caviar table and adventurous miniplates.

And while the city had a few nominees, only one Chicagoan took home a big award: Jacob Potashnick of Feld won Best Chef: Great Lakes after his comeback year. Still, plenty of Chicago talent was on the guest list, joining chefs from some of the country’s most exciting restaurants of the moment, including New York wine bar Lei (winner of the Best New Restaurant), San Francisco hotspot Quince (Michael Tusk won the evening’s outstanding chef award) and Philadelphia’s Kalaya (winner of outstanding restaurant of the year).

Chicagoan Bailey Sullivan of Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio was a finalist on Monday in the emerging chef category (ultimately that award went to Adrian Torres, of the restaurant Maximo in West University Place, Texas, in the Houston area.) On the red carpet, Sullivan said she was “beyond ecstatic” to help represent her hometown at the awards. “I just couldn’t be more proud of being a Chicago native and supporting this town and just bringing a little life to the city.”

From red carpet to ceremony to afterparty, here’s a peek inside the evening in photos. — Cassie Walker Burke