Learn Who Built Our National Reputation

It’s not every year that a Buffalo-area restaurant professional is acknowledged by the James Beard Foundation’s annual awards. But since 2008, ten separate nominations have gone to five local restaurants and their teams.

Together, these nominations tell a story about Buffalo’s food scene that goes a layer deeper than what we may be known for. A city whose name has become synonymous with a flavor and the birthplace of an appetizer menu phenom has plenty of celebrated, skilled food and drink professionals taking a different path.

Below is a tour of every Buffalo restaurant that has earned a James Beard nomination. Consider it a short history of how Buffalo’s food scene stopped being a punchline and started being a contender.

The Nominees

Ryan Fernandez | Southern Junction

Emerging Chef | Finalist 2024

Best Chef, New York State | Finalist 2025

Born in Kerala, India, Fernandez moved with his family to Plano, Texas, at fourteen, where he fell for barbecue. He later settled in Buffalo and launched Southern Junction as a takeout operation in 2020, opening a full restaurant on Connecticut Street in 2023, built around his own blend of Texas barbecue and South Indian flavors. He calls it “Tex-ish.” The Beard Foundation named him an Emerging Chef finalist in 2024 and a Best Chef: New York State finalist in 2025, the only finalist from outside New York City. In 2026, he became the only Buffalo chef invited to cook at the Beard Awards in Chicago, where he served Southern Junction’s fare at the official after-party.

Tony Rials and Jessica Forster | Waxlight Bar á Vin

Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program | Finalist 2023 and 2024; Semifinalist 2025

Certified sommelier Jessica Forster and sommelier/mixologist Tony Rials oversee Waxlight Bar á Vin’s fascinating drink program. Favoring small, sustainable producers over more predictable makers, Waxlight’s smart wine program and hyper-seasonal culinary cocktails earned this well-deserved nomination. Alongside business partners, chef Joseph Fenush and Lauren Romanillos, the Waxlight team has built a technique-driven restaurant shaped by careful sourcing. Earning three straight years of national recognition from the Foundation for a national category is something no Buffalo restaurant or chef has done before.

 

Victor Parra Gonzalez | Las Puertas

Best Chef Northeast | Semifinalist, 2018 and 2019

Parra Gonzalez grew up in Acapulco, leaving home at seventeen for culinary school in Quebec, where he trained at the École Hôtelière des Laurentides before relocating to Buffalo in 2009. In February 2017, he opened Las Puertas on Rhode Island Street, an intimate restaurant with a concise menu that changes every few weeks and blends flavors from his Acapulco childhood with the French technique he learned in Quebec. Back-to-back semifinalist nods in 2018 and 2019 made him the first Buffalo chef to put modern Mexican cooking in front of the Beard Foundation.

 

Steve and Ellen Gerda | The Black Sheep

Best Chef Northeast; Semifinalist, 2017

WNY natives Steve and Ellen Gedra met in a Boston restaurant, Blu, where Steve cooked, and Ellen baked. They returned to Buffalo in 2009 and opened Bistro Europa on Elmwood, gaining a loyal following with sharp cooking, dedicated sourcing and Steve’s innovative use of global flavor profiles and techniques. In 2013, the pair moved into an old tavern on Connecticut Street and opened The Black Sheep with double the seats. Steve ran the savory side of the kitchen, but Ellen’s bread and pastry work became one of the restaurant’s signatures. Their 2017 semifinalist nod recognized what regulars already knew. The Gedras also served as ambassadors for Dining Out for Life from 2016 to 2022, and hosted events like the annual farmer support event Big Fuss and Midnight Mass, which gave guest chefs a stage of their own.

Mike Andrzejewski | SeaBar

Best Chef | Semifinalist, 2008, 2009, and 2010

Andrzejewski is Buffalo’s culinary living legend, with a formative résumé that includes Oliver’s, Warren’s and Rue Franklin before he opened Kenmore’s sea-changing Tsunami with Tai Truong in 2002. A severe motorcycle accident in 2005 cost him his leg and closed Tsunami. Years of surgery later, he launched SeaBar in 2008, pairing Japanese technique with American cuisine influences (spanning Hawaii to Buffalo). SeaBar became one of Buffalo’s most awarded restaurants. On Food Network, he Beat Bobby Flay and competed in a special Chopped series honoring Julia Child. He became a three-time James Beard nominee and a five-time Beard House guest chef. He spent nearly a decade cooking at Taste of the NFL, and with Christa Glennie, hosted Industry Night and Nickel City Chef. He now lives in Florida with his wife, Sherri, and travels to Buffalo frequently to host dinners and special events.

 

Buffalo at the Beard House

For nearly 40 years, receiving an invitation to cook at the James Beard House on West 12th Street (the Greenwich Village home of chef and writer, James Beard) was a top honor for professional chefs in the United States. A personal invitation to cook for a paying, food-literate Manhattan audience was game-changing for chefs and the restaurants they owned or worked in.

While programming for the James Beard Foundation has shifted away from the House to Platform and the Taste America series in recent years, the eleven times a Buffalo chef or team prepared a meal at the Beard House served as triple duty for the cook behind the stove: an honor of a lifetime, an endorsement that impressed the media and future employers and an experience every member of the restaurant’s team would never forget. For years, chef Mike Andrzejewski and later Nickel City Chef helped pave the way for Buffalo chefs to receive acknowledgment from the Beard House.

2017: Jennifer Boye | Elm Street Bakery (Boye is currently the executive chef at Moriarty Meats & Cafe)

2017: Ross Warhol | Oliver’s (Warhol currently owns Ladybird Deli + Bakery)

2017: Edward Forster | Buffalo Proper

2016: Steve and Ellen Gedra | The Black Sheep

2016: Mike Andrzejewski | SeaBar

2015: Adam Goetz | Craving

2013: Jennifer Boye (Mansion on Delaware Avenue), Adam Goetz (Craving), Brian Mietus (Bacchus), and JJ Richert (Torches) | Nickel City Chef 

2013: Mike Andrzejewski and Edward Forster | Mike A at Hotel Lafayette

2011: Mike Andrzejewski | SeaBar

2002: Mike Andrzejewski | Tsunami

1999: Mike Andrzejewski | Oliver’s