Food
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Thirty-seven restaurants and
chefs across New York City
have been chosen as semi-finalists
to win the coveted
James Beard Award, and this year,
five of them are from Queens.
On Feb. 27, the James Beard
Foundation announced the nominees
for the 2019 Restaurant and Chef
Awards which included Adda Indian
Canteen and Casa Enrique in Long
Island City, SriPraPhai in Woodside,
Dumpling Galaxy in Flushing and
Xi’an Famous foods (multiple loca-tions).
Categories for the 29th annual
Restaurant and Chef Awards span
21 categories including Best New
Restaurant, Outstanding Chef, Out-standing
Restaurant and Rising Star
Chef of the Year. Hundreds of chefs
and restaurants across the country
were nominated for the awards af-fectionately
called “the Oscars of the
food world.”
Cosme Aguilar from Casa Enrique
(5-48 49th Ave.) and Helen You of
Dumpling Galaxy (42-35 Main St.)
were nominated for the Outstanding
Chef: New York City category along-side
40 MARCH 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
18 other culinary heavy-hitters
in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Chef Aguilar from the Michelin-star
rated Casa Enrique came from
Chiapas, Mexico and learned to cook
his mother’s traditional recipes from
his sister. He came to New York in
1998 and got his start in the res-taurant
industry as a porter at a
French restaurant before opening
Casa Enrique in 2012. The Mexican
restaurant has been awarded multiple
Michelin stars since its opening and
was the only Queens restaurant to
get one in 2019.
The restaurant congratulated
Aguilar for his James Beard Award
nomination on Instagram.
“Congratulations to our Chef
Cosme Aguilar on being named 2019
James Beard Award semifinalist for
the best chef of New York City!” wrote
the restaurant team on Instagram.
Tianjin Dumpling owner You
opened Dumpling Galaxy at Flushing’s
Arcadia Mall in 2014. In her Dump-ling
Galaxy cookbook, You credits
dumplings with the successes that
she’s experienced throughout her
life. “Everything I have today I owe
to dumplings, and they have always
meant more than just a good meal,”
Meet the
five James
Beard
Award
semifinalists
from Queens
Adda Indian Canteen
SriPraPhai Thai Restaurant
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