Detroit’s Baobab Fare, a three-time semifinalist for the coveted James Beard Award, came up short Monday in a tight contest for the Outstanding Restauranteur of 2024.
Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere were among five chefs and owners from across the country nominated for the distinguished award for their popular New Center eatery.
Hajime Sato of Sozai in Clawson earned top honors in the award competition as Best Chef: Great Lakes during the ceremony at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Sato, who grew up in Japan, noted during his Monday night acceptance speech that the nomination was his second for a Beard award. The recognition, he said, has helped elevate the vital causes he advocates: sustainable sushi and ocean conservation.
“Oceans (are) not in good shape. As you know, Earth is not in good shape and a small restaurant like me cannot really do that much,” he told the audience. “But everybody here, nominees, winners, now you have a voice. I need everybody’s help so that maybe we can do our ceremony 10 years from now. Thank you very much, but we have work to do.”
Detroit native Charlie Mitchell also came out on top for his work at Clover Hill in the category for Best Chef: New York State.
Related:
- Waka by Baobab Fare coming to Eastern Market
- James Beard semi-finalist Baobab Fare closes on new east side location
- Detroit’s Baobab Fare wins Food Network’s Chopped
For Baobab, the latest prospect of a James Beard Award comes amid growth of the couple’s budding East African cuisine empire.
In a social media post, Mamba commended Sato for bringing home an award to Detroit and said he considers the nomination a win for Baobab too.
“Honestly, I feel so humbled and so happy to be here tonight. This is already a win,” he said. “To be in this category, after three years in business, this is a big deal.”
Last month, the Beard award semifinalists announced that their popular East African food truck in Detroit’s Eastern Market, Waka, will soon make its presence more permanent with a brick-and-mortar and, this spring, the couple closed on the purchase of another building on the city’s east side. Baobab Fare East will locate in a former video store-turned-tax office on E. Warren Avenue. Work on that project is set to get underway in July, with an opening pegged for late December.
In 2022, Detroit’s Warda Pâtisserie took home a James Beard for Outstanding Pastry Chef, the city’s only James Beard Award in the last two decades.
Baobab Fare began as a pop-up in 2017 before opening their New Center restaurant at Woodward and E. Grand Boulevard in 2021. The restaurant specializes in dishes like flash-fried fish, eggplant stew, and slow-roasted goat shank alongside plantains and rice.
Mamba and Nijimbere came to the U.S. from Burundi as refugees. In 2023, Mamba won Food Network’s Chopped and announced he would donate the $10,000 in winnings to the Detroit shelter where Nijimbere stayed when she first came to Detroit, Freedom House Detroit.
The James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards celebrate a range of excellence from new to established fine-dining to casual establishments. The Restaurant and Chef Awards were created in 1990 and first awarded in 1991 and represent one of five separate recognition programs of the James Beard Awards.
