2020 James Beard Awards Recognizes Past Honey Baking Summit Attendees

Posted October 8, 2020 by Alyssa Stahr

The results may have been delayed a bit this year, but it was worth the wait. Every Outstanding Bakery mentioned as a 2020 James Beard Award winner is a past Honey Baking Summit attendee!

For those familiar with Brightly Creative, you know that we’ve had a longstanding partnership with the National Honey Board, including the annual Honey Baking Summit, an exclusive event that gathers a group of the most innovative bread bakers and pastry chefs in the industry. Clearly the James Beard Awards have the same idea about who the best of the best is, because each of the top 5 awarded bakeries have sent bakers to a Honey Baking Summit in the past. 

Unfortunately, the outstanding bakers had to wait a little longer in 2020 to find out if they were award winners for their work in 2019, due to COVID. The announcement would have been in person on the 30th anniversary of the James Beard Awards in Chicago. However, the announcement was live streamed via the James Beard Twitter account and was co-hosted by VISIT PHILADELPHIA President and CEO Jeff Guaracino and the Beard Foundation’s CEO, Clare Reichenbach. Instead, the Foundation turned the remote announcement into a positive by postponing awards activities to focus on the James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund, which to date, according to its website, has disbursed more than $4 million to independent, locally owned restaurants around the country. 

This year’s five outstanding bakers were pastry chefs or bakers who “demonstrate exceptional skill, integrity and character in the preparation of desserts, pastries or breads served in a retail bakery. Must have been working as a pastry chef or baker for the past five years.” This year’s winners are:

Graison Gill
Bellegarde Bakery
New Orleans

Zachary Golper
Bien Cuit
NYC

Maura Kilpatrick
Sofra Bakery
Cambridge, MA

Lisa Ludwinski
Sister Pie
Detroit

Avery Ruzicka
Manresa Bread
Los Gatos, CA

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Tags: , ,

CATEGORY:

Let us know your pursuits. We’ll find the best way to get you there.