D.C. has scored big at the James Beard Award, with one of the main winners going out to Carlos Delgado of Shaw’s Causa and Amazonia.
If you haven’t yet been, Causa and Amazonia is a two-concept Peruvian restaurant with Causa, a tasting room, on the bottom and Amazonia, a heated patio on the top. The restaurant promises to take you through the best of Coastal and Peruvian and Andean cuisine. Causa promises a unique and eclectic six-course tasting menu filled with fresh fish and other ingredients, plus, it can be paired with beautifully curated wine and pisco. Amazonia offers a relaxed sanctuary away from the city with spirited house-crafted cocktails and snacks.
According to an interview with the Michelin Guide, the inspiration behind Causa was to give Delgado an opportunity to be an ambassador of Peruvain flavors and ingredients, some of the most unique in the world because of the fact that the rainforest near Peru offers some of the most unique ingredients in the world that you can’t get anywhere else. Delgado’s love for his grandmother also inspired him to become a chef, a story we can really get behind.
The competition was steep, with these talented chefs rounding up the nominees:
- Henji Cheung, Queen’s English, Washington, D.C.
- Carlos Delgado, Causa and Amazonia, Washington, D.C.
- Jesse Ito, Royal Sushi & Izakaya, Philadelphia, PA.
- Dan Richer, Razza, Jersey City, NJ.
- Amanda Shulman, Her Place Supper Club, Philadelphia, PA.
Here is the full list of winners if you’re interested to see who took home other accolades. Congrats again to Carlos Delgado, whose restaurant Causa and Amazonia was once nominated for Best Restaurant in 2023 for the James Beard Awards and also received a Michelin Star.