A few 2025 James Beard award winners
Good Food
KCRW
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 July 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Three cheers for these James Beard winners!
- LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison visits Kato in its new location at the Row DTLA
- Pastry chef Nicola Lamb sifts through the essential ingredients of baking — flour, sugar, eggs, and butter
- Chef Ashleigh Shanti goes beyond fried chicken and cornbread to reconsider Southern cuisine
- Bartender Jim Meehan considers cocktails from a culinary perspective
- Adam Reiner takes a closer look at the products behind the tongue-in-cheek labels on Trader Joe's shelves
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman, and this is Good Food. |
| 0:06.1 | The James Beard Awards took place in Chicago last month, |
| 0:09.6 | and for the third year in a row, an L.A. Chef took home the award for Best Chef, California. |
| 0:15.4 | This year, the honor went to John Yao of Cato. |
| 0:19.2 | Here's a clip of his acceptance speech. |
| 0:22.1 | We tell stories, you know, stories of immigrants, diaspora, endurance, and perseverance. |
| 0:28.1 | L.A. is a city built by the toils of immigrant communities, and right now those same |
| 0:32.8 | communities are being ripped apart. |
| 0:35.6 | As the children of immigrants, I'm sure many here can imagine a scenario where we couldn't be |
| 0:39.8 | here to celebrate this altogether. |
| 0:42.3 | But we all deserve the freedom to pursue our dreams, to determine our own futures, and to be |
| 0:46.9 | treated with equal dignity and respect. |
| 0:50.0 | And everyone in this room tonight has the ability and voice to amplify that message through their own stories in their own communities. |
| 0:56.4 | And I urge all of us to please use that voice and platform. |
| 0:59.5 | Thank you. |
| 1:03.5 | John Yao is no stranger to accolades. |
| 1:06.6 | Currently, Cato sits atop the Los Angeles Times list of the 101 best restaurants in |
| 1:12.0 | Los Angeles. And today we're re-airing L.A. Times critic Bill Addison's 2022 review, which |
| 1:19.2 | came after the restaurant moved from a West L.A. strip mall into more glamorous digs downtown. |
| 1:25.9 | Hi, Bill. Hi, Evan. |
| 1:27.9 | Good to hear your voice. |
| 1:29.0 | Good to hear you, too. |
... |
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