Mike Lata, the chef and owner of FIG in Charleston, was named the best chef in the Southeast at the James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony Monday night in New York City, The Post and Courier reported.
It is the second year in a row that a Charleston chef has won the award. Robert Stehling, owner of Hominy Grill, took the title last year, according to the newspaper. Stehling said then that the recognition “helps Charleston promote itself as a food city,” The Post and Courier reported.
Lata credited his business partner, Adam Nemirow, and his staff.
“You are only as good as the people around you,” Lata said on the red carpet at Lincoln Center, according to The Post and Courier.
It was Lata’s third nomination for the award. “Three times the charm,” he said.
The Southeast category covers six states: Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. Lata beat four other finalists, including Hugh Acheson of Five & Ten in Athens, Ga., according to the Columbia weekly Free Times.
Charleston had two other chefs in the running this year. Bob Waggoner, formerly of Charleston Grill, was also nominated for Best Chef Southeast, and Sean Brock of McCrady’s was nominated for Rising Star Chef, The Post and Courier reported. The newspaper called it rare for a city of Charleston’s size to land three nominees for awards often described as the Oscars of the food world.
FIG celebrated its sixth birthday in April. Lata, who is self-taught, was previously chef at Anson restaurant after working at Ciboulette in Atlanta, according to The Post and Courier.
The restaurant builds its menu around South Carolina foods. Its suppliers include Anson Mills for grains and Keegan-Filion Farms for free-range chicken, and dishes feature local shrimp and fish, Wadmalaw Island onions and Carolina Gold rice, the Free Times reported.
The national awards went largely to New York restaurants this year. Momofuku Ko was named best new restaurant, and Dan Barber of Blue Hill was named outstanding chef, according to the Free Times.
