May 08, 2018
One of Philadelphia’s most celebrated restaurants was granted another accolade Monday night as Camille Cogswell, the 27-year-old pastry chef at Zahav, won the city’s only 2018 James Beard Award.
Cogswell took the title for Rising Star Chef of the Year during the ceremony, which was held in Chicago. Zahav, which was also nominated for Outstanding Service Award, took home the Outstanding Chef prize last year thanks to Chef Michael Solomonov. Though Cogswell had been nominated for the Rising Star Chef award in 2017, this is her first time winning.
Cogswell is the second ever pastry chef to win the Rising Star Chef award, which is dedicated to a chef age 30 or younger who shows promising talent.
"I want to give credit to all of the other nominees. The fact that I was chosen for this…I’m beyond words."–Camille Cogswell, 2018 #jbfa Rising Star Chef of the Year pic.twitter.com/BFFlWtoL6V
— James Beard Foundation (@beardfoundation) May 8, 2018
Cogswell joined Zahav in 2015. Since then, she has made seasonal interpretations of Middle Eastern pastry konafi a staple of the menu.
Cogswell was one three Philadelphians nominated for James Beard Awards this year. The other two were Ellen Yin (High Street on Market, Fork) for Outstanding Restauranteur and Rich Landau (Vedge) for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic.
Check out the full list of 2018 James Beard winners here.
