PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia was well-represented at the James Beard Awards in Chicago Tuesday night.
The restaurant Friday Saturday Sunday in Center City took home the Outstanding Restaurant award.
Ellen Yin of High Street Hospitality Group — including restaurants Fork, a.kitchen + bar, and High Street, to name a few — won Outstanding Restaurateur.
And, Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon, chef of the popular Thai restaurant Kalaya in Fishtown, received the Best Chef Mid-Atlantic honor.
After she met her husband while serving as a flight attendant on Thai Airways, Suntaranon moved to Philadelphia and worked three jobs to pursue her love of cooking, often giving food to her new friends and neighbors. They eventually asked her to cater, and by April 2019, she bought the space for Kalaya.
It’s named after her mother.
“The woman who worked really hard and devoted every moment of her life to make my life and my brother’s life better,” she said.
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Since then, her business has become widely acclaimed. Philadelphia Magazine named it Best New Restaurant on its Best of Philly list in 2020.
Meanwhile, Yin has been the owner and operator of multiple Philly restaurants for more than 25 years. She said her love of food started when she was a teenager, and the first restaurant she worked in gave her a sense of belonging.
“To Philadelphia, you made me belong,” she said. “Your ongoing commitment fostered a world-class restaurant scene.”
Suntaranon was up against two other Philly chefs in the Best Chef category: Jessie Ito, of Royal Sushi, and Dionicio Jiménez, of Cantina La Martina. Amanda Shulman, of Center City’s Her Place Supper Club, was also nominated in the Emerging Chef category.
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