A week after announcing their nominations, the James Byrd Foundation has issued a statement removing the nomination for Chef Peter Prime’s Best Chef Award in the Mid-Atlantic, according to an email sent to voters this morning.
Prime, nominated for his work at the hit Trinidad restaurant Cane on H Street, left Cane and the long-awaited restaurant St. James in mid-February, according to the Washingtonian. That was about two weeks before the nominees were announced. JBF’s eligibility rules for its tumultuous awards state that “only candidates who are active and whose business (s) are open will be considered”.
Prime was not the only chef wrongly included in the JBAs this year. Louis Young of Penrose Room in Colorado Springs and Ben Welch of Botanica in Wildwood, Missouri, were also removed for similar reasons. Welch left Botanica in January 2022 to work on a cookbook and find a home for a new restaurant to work on. Penrose’s room, meanwhile, has been described as “temporarily closed.”
Meanwhile, Chicago chef Jason Vincent of Giant was added to the category of Outstanding Chefs on the James Beard Foundation’s website yesterday, six days after the list of nominations was first published for “official misconduct.”
Prime, chef of the year at Eater DC for 2019, ran both restaurants with his sister and former business partner Janine Prime. They cite a “private family issue” as the reason for leaving, also according to the Washingtonian.
While his sister plans to open St. James this spring as an ode to the Trinidadian roots of the Prime family, Prime says he is writing a cookbook on the basics of Caribbean cuisine.
The James Beard Foundation will announce the final nominees for all categories on Wednesday, March 16th. The 2022 Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony will be held at a gala in Chicago on Monday, June 13 – the first time the awards program has taken place since 2019.
Update (02.03.2022; 16:45 EST): Eater corrects an error on the date of the award ceremony, which will be Monday, June 13, 2022.
Update (02.03.2022; 23:45): This story has been updated with new information, including the addition of Chicago chef Jason Vincent to the list of nominees.
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