LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Kentucky chefs are named the semi-finalists for the James Beard Awards. The awards are like the Oscars but for food.

What You Need To Know

  • Two Kentucky chefs are named the semi-finalists for the James Beard Awards

  • Chef Lawrence Weeks with Enso and North of Bourbon is a semi-finalist for the Emerging Chef category

  • Chef Dallas McGarity with the Fat Lamb is a semi-finalist for the Southeast Region

  • The James Beard Foundation will announce the nominee on April 3 and the winners on July 10

“I’ve been cooking 17 years at this point,” said Lawrence Weeks, a professional chef at Enso and North of Bourbon.

He started cooking at 15 years old and his first stop was fast-food.

“I worked at Sonic. Yeah. So I worked there for about a year and then I upgraded to Jimmy John’s and I was a manager there,” Weeks said. “And then I started working in professional kitchens when I was 17 or 18 and then just never looked back.”

Now Weeks is a professional using his talents at two restaurants.

“The food here is really a reflection of my southern background and my interest in Japanese cuisine and culture,” Weeks said.

In January, he and another Louisville chef became semi-finalists in the running for the national James Beard Awards.

.

“What I got nominated for was Emerging Chef, which is normally for younger chefs that are starting to make an impact on the industry, and that’s looked at on a national level. We also have another chef in town, Dallas McGarrity, at the Fat Lamb, who got a semifinalist nomination for the Southeast Region,” Week said.

For Weeks, he said it’s about living out a family legacy.

“I knew I wanted to be a chef before way before I was able to work,” Weeks said. “So I feel like I’m just kind of living out a dream of the past two generations of men and my family and my grandfather, who I’m named after, Lawrence Murray. He wanted to be a chef, but he couldn’t and then his father, Lawrence Ignatius, wanted well, he was he was a cook but at that time, he couldn’t really be a chef.”

That’s because, as he explains it, Black people couldn’t hold a position as a chef.

“My grandfather wasn’t able to cook because, at that time where he was, Black people weren’t allowed in the kitchen, so he was part of the serving staff. So, you know, on his off days and in the weekends, he would always cook at home. So he was a really good cook,” Week said.

The James Beard Foundation will announce the nominee on April 3 and the winners on July 10.

Related Stories