Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Chef Michael Solomonov Is James Beard Finalist (And Movie Star)

In yet another sign that an Israeli-food renaissance is taking place in the U.S., the James Beard Foundation yesterday named Israeli-born Zahav chef Michael Solomonov a finalist in the Outstanding Chef category, a top national honor of the prestigious annual culinary awards.

The winners will be named in a ceremony on May 1, at a gala hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson of ‘Modern Family’ at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Solomonov is already a Beard Award recipient: In 2011 he won Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the chef will be in New York next week, celebrating the New York City theatrical release of “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” the documentary by filmmaker Roger Sherman in which Solomonov acts as culinary guide throughout Israel, visiting restaurants, home cooks and food and wine producers.

The movie opens March 24 at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Angelica Film Center.

Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @LifeDeathDinner

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.