The winners of the James Beard Awards were announced Monday, with the award for Best New Restaurant going to Lei, a winebar in New York’s Chinatown. Michael Tusk of Quince in San Francisco was named Outstanding Chef at the award ceremony, which took place at the historic Lyric Opera in Chicago before an audience of about 2,000 chefs, restaurant owners and culinary figures.

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Adrian Torres of Maximo in West University Place, Texas, won the Emerging Chef award. Torres, whose parents immigrated from Mexico, took the opportunity to highlight his immigrant roots, saying that for so long ‘fear was our story.’ ‘I’m proud to be the son of immigrants. I’m proud to be a DACA recipient,’ he said, referring to so-called illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as children.

The James Beard Foundation, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, puts a premium on discovery and on American cuisine. ‘We are singularly American … and we celebrate American food culture,’ Clare Reichenbach, chief executive officer of the James Beard Foundation, said in remarks before the event.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.