By Butch Maier / Photos By Jason Adams
Chef Paul Smith was washing dishes at his restaurant when he got a congratulatory call from one of his best friends. “I actually hung up on him,” Smith said. “I thought he was joking.” Smith, the chef at 1010 Bridge in Charleston, West Virginia, soon learned that he had, indeed, received a serious honor. The James Beard Foundation named him the 2024 Best Chef: Southeast. The equivalent of an Oscar for chefs.
Smith became the first chef from West Virginia to win a James Beard award. He earned the recognition over other top chefs from Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. “Completely shocked,” Smith said. “I had no idea that we were even nominated.”
From the time he received the award in Chicago, talked to the media, and arrived at the after-party, Smith said he “literally got a thousand text messages. My wife’s like, ‘You know, you don’t have to respond to all those texts now,’” Smith said. “I said, ‘Yes, I absolutely do because this is why we’re here. We’re here because of the support. We’re here because of the courage and because of the push people give us.” He responded to every text with gratitude. “The wonderful thing about it is that our entire state, I know, felt a part of it,” Smith said. “I have had 100 chefs from our state reach out.”
Smith grew up in Charleston and left to “learn my craft from the best chefs that I possibly could” in California, New York, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. “But nowhere really felt like home,” Smith said. “I always wanted to come back and make a difference in the food scene here. I think we’re doing that.” chefpaulwv.com
The James Beard Foundation selected Chef Paul Smith from Charleston, West Virginia, as the 2024 Best Chef: Southeast. He earned the recognition over other top chefs from Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Butch Maier
