You can't blame Chef Jacob Potashnick of Feld Restaurant for being a little speechless.
"I'm over the moon, this is a dream come true, uh," he smiled.
One of three chefs nominated, Potashnick was the only one to take home the coveted James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes at the ceremony held Monday night at The Lyric Opera House in Chicago.
"Feld is a 20 seat restaurant with 9 staff so it'll be easy to name them all. I've had this mantra in my head all week, sort of win or loss situation. It's from a poem that I love: it ends, already am, always was and I still have time to be. Feld is a really young restaurant and we have so much further to go, so we still have time to be," he said.
Potashnick opened his Ukrainian Village restaurant in 2024. Feld earned its first Michelin star in 2025. The restaurant also won Jean Banchet Awards this year for Best New Restaurant and Best Hospitality. He says they haven't changed anything since they opened and credits that consistency to its success.
"We never moved the way from the core of what we are as a restaurant, the relationship to table, who we were work with, how we work with them, how we operate. That core remains in place. My core team remains in place which is so essential to who we are and the identity of the restaurant."
Chicago had semifinalists in several categories this year including nine for Best Chef: Great Lakes. The three Chicago nominees were narrowed down from 23 Chicago semifinalists. The other Chicago nominee in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category was Norman Fenton of Cariño. Monteverde’s Bailey Sullivan was a nominee for Emerging Chef.
Potashnick says he's just honored to be recognized with some of Chicago's best.
Chef Jacob Potashnick of Feld Restaurant speaks after winning a James Beard Award
Lisa Fielding/WBBM Newsradio
"First I am taking the night to enjoy it. Tomorrow I'll think business. When you win something like this, the next step is to support other people in the industry so they get these kinds of opportunities as well. I do think that Feld is a couple of years ago, that is my next step. I want to be a mentor in the Chicago industry as a whole. "
This is the James Beard Foundation's 40th anniversary. The awards are often called the “Oscars of the food world,” the Beard Awards recognize talent in the culinary and food and media industries.
The Beards have been held annually in Chicago since 2015 and will continue through 2028. The Ukrainian Village restaurant earned its first Michelin star last year.
"One of the greatest thing about the Chicago food scene is that it's always open to just about everything. We were the first to accept modernist cuisine. We were also one of the first in the country to accept true farm to table. Rick Bayless, Sarah Stegner, these amazing chefs, we have this amazing spectrum of dining and we're welcoming of all of it in different ways. That's what makes this very much -why this makes his city dining special."
Feld is located at 2018 W Chicago Avenue.
