Chef Erin Miller of Urban Hearth is a James Beard Award Semifinalist

Chef Erin Miller at Urban Hearth, photo by Brian Samuels

We are so incredibly honored and excited to announce that our own Chef Erin Miller has been selected as a semifinalist for a James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef, Northeast, along with 7 other MA based chefs. We are very happy to see some friends and neighbors on this list as well, like our friends at Talulla in Cambridge who are celebrating their second nomination.

It's not an easy achievement to make this list, especially for a small, neighborhood restaurant like Urban Hearth, but as Chef put it in an interview with Maya Shavit of Boston.com “There’s kind of an intimacy that we can achieve in our hospitality, the dining experience as a whole, that maybe bigger cities don’t have as much. We are part of the fabric of the neighborhood.” That sentiment is reflected in the JBF code of ethics, which is used to select the nominees each year.

The mission of the James Beard Awards is to "recognize exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media, and broader food system, as well as a demonstrated commitment to equity, community, sustainability, and a culture where all can thrive." - JBF Code of Ethics. Our team has been striving for excellence with every plate we serve, every interaction we have with our guests, every trip to the farmers market to source local and sustainable produce, every time that we make use of a whole ingredient instead of letting most of it go to waste. It is so rewarding to see that commitment to excellence being recognized on a national level.

This is a team win and would not have been possible without the devotion and effort of our whole team, from our prep cooks for their long hours every day and tireless commitment to upholding our quality standards, to our sous chefs, Rebecca and Gabriel, whose creative force and consistent devotion to craft are the heart and soul of Urban Hearth, to our front of house team who study wine and ingredients in their off hours to make sure they are telling the true story of our food, and especially our porter team, without whom we would not have the ability to serve hospitality at such a high level in such a tiny space. Thank you to the James Beard Foundation for this great honor. Thank you to the Urban Hearth community for showing up for us and trusting us for all of our 8 years in business and all our years to come.

The final selection will be announced on April 2. In the meantime we'll keep on doing what we we do best, serving our community with warmth, hospitality, and commitment to excellence. Come celebrate with us!