The 2025 Winners of the Jean Banchets, Chicago's Local Food Awards

WTTW - Playlist / by Daniel Hautzinger / January 26, 2025

The Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence honor Chicago’s food and beverage industry, but if you take all the ceremony presenters and winners at their word, the awards may as well honor the best in the country. Chicago and its food scene were spoken of only in superlatives.

In a ceremony that featured cameos from various icons, from the “tamale guy” Claudio Velez to Kasama’s Genie Kwon and Tim Flores to “breakfast queen” Ina Pinkney, chef Roland Liccioni was singularly celebrated with the Culinary Excellence of the Year Award. Born in Vietnam, trained in France, and with a career built in Chicago, Liccioni took over Le Francais from Jean Banchet himself, ran Les Nomades for years, and worked at other acclaimed restaurants in almost 50 years of cooking before quietly retiring last year. Read More Here.