Eastern Shore chef wins James Beard Award: ‘Food is the way to the soul’

An Easton chef is bringing a James Beard Award to Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Harley Peet of Bas Rouge won the best chef of the Mid-Atlantic Region at a Monday night ceremony in Chicago.

“Food is an absolute vehicle to spark a memory, to spark an amazing thing in somebody’s life, and that’s why we do it, right? Food is our palette. We’re all artists in different ways, so this our way to convey love, happiness and equity to anyone,” Peet said in his acceptance speech. “Food is the way to the soul. Food is the way to the heart.”

Peet beat out nominees from restaurants in Maryland, Washington D.C., Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, including Tony Conte, of Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana in Montgomery County, who was also a finalist. Chef David Zamudio, the former head chef at Venezuelan restaurant Alma Cocina Latina in Baltimore’s Station North neighborhood, was named a semifinalist in the category.

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Bas Rouge bills itself as a restaurant with elegant and modern European cuisine and world-class wines. An upcoming champagne night menu features “local strawberry gazpacho, Australian grass-fed lamb tartare, and Dover Sole fresh from the waters of Brittany, France complete with a special lineup of Billecart-Salmon’s finest Champagnes.”

In another catagory, Clavel in Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood lost out in the outstanding bar competition to Jewel of the South in New Orleans.

The James Beard Foundation has bestowed awards since 1991, except in 2020 and 2021 when the organization scrapped them as the restaurant industry was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 restaurants were finalists this year in 22 categories for the culinary world’s equivalent of the Oscars.  Nominees are reviewed for the food as well as for a behavioral code of ethics, including how employees are treated.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.