Feb. 25, 2021

Taste America 2021

Stephen Jones PHOTO BY DEBBY WOLVOS, DW PHOTOGRAPHY

The James Beard Foundation presents featured chefs, cities and programming for its annual Taste America event. The 2021 Taste America event presented by Capital One will take place March 21 in 10 cities nationwide at 5 p.m. Pacific Time / 8 p.m. Eastern Time. The event brings everyone together for a virtual communal dinner to eat, celebrate local independent restaurants and support efforts to rebuild a more sustainable and equitable industry.

Each event ticket ($95 for one person or $175 for two) includes a three-course takeout meal created by a local chef plus wine and Rabbit Hole whiskey to be enjoyed at home and access to a national broadcast featuring a lineup of James Beard Foundation chefs and special guests from across the country. The broadcast will feature all 12 of the participating chefs listed below as well as special guests. Guests are also invited to check out online cooking demos with the featured chefs demonstrating how to finish off each entrée course. Locally curated menus for each participating city can be viewed here.

The Taste America series supports local chefs and restaurants directly while also driving philanthropic support towards industry-wide relief. 70% of all tickets sold will go directly to participating chefs’ restaurants to support their business, with 30% supporting the James Beard Foundation’s national programming, including the Open for Good campaign. The campaign is committed to helping independent restaurants survive the COVID-19 pandemic, rebuild stronger and thrive for the long term. As part of this campaign, the Foundation has created the James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans, which recently provided its first round of $15,000 grants to food and beverage businesses, majority-owned by Black or Indigenous individuals, across six regions nationally. For information on the Foundation’s Open for Good campaign, click here.

This year’s 2021 Taste America participating chefs and cities who will appear in the broadcast include the following:

Boston | Tracy Chang, PAGU

Chicago | Dylan Patel, avec

Denver | Cindhura Reddy, Spuntino

Los Angeles | Josef Centeno, Orsa & Winston

NYC (Brooklyn) | Alex Raij & Eder Montero, La Vara

NYC | Emma Bengtsson, Aquavit

NYC | Simone Tong, Silver Apricot

Philadelphia | Andrew Henshaw, Laser Wolf

Phoenix | Stephen Jones, the larder + the delta – To view Chef Stephen Jones’s menu, click here.

San Francisco | Kim Alter, Nightbird

Seattle | Aaron Verzosa, Archipelago