The James Beard Foundation’s 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards took place on Monday, June 10th, where they announced the winners of their highly prestigious awards and recognitions for chefs, restaurants, and restauranteurs in the United States.
Claiming one of their elusive titles is considered a significant industry accolade and is widely regarded as one of the most exact benchmarks of excellence within the United States’ culinary world.
What D.C. chef won the “Outstanding Chef” award?
In back-to-back years, a D.C. Chef has won the “Outstanding Chef” prize at the James Beard Foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards, showing that the D.C. food scene is simply unmatched!
Last year, the winner was Rob Rubba of Oyster Oyster, but this year, the winner of the 2024 Outstanding Chef Award was Michael Rafidi of Albi.
After being a finalist in the “Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic” category last year, but coming up short, Chef Rafidi has now earned a best chef title for an area much larger than the Mid-Atlantic region as the “Outstanding Chef” award is given to the best chef in the entire country!
How to eat Chef Rafidi’s cooking
Micheal Rafidi is the head chef and owner of Albi, which happens to be one of the best restaurants in D.C.!
The Navy Yards located Middle Eastern restaurant is considered one of the best culinary experiences in the country, and while it wasn’t the easiest place to get a same-day reservation in the past, this newfound publicity might make it more competitive than ever to book a table.
If you’re not afraid of making your plans well in advance, you can book a table on Albi’s reservation page, but you’ll need to make your reservation roughly a month in advance to ensure there’s enough space.