The James Beard Foundation announced the winners of its annual awards for 2024 Monday night, with two from Portland receiving top honors.
Atsuko Fujimoto, owner of Norimoto Bakery, took home the national award for “Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker,” while ZU Bakery won the foundation’s award for “Outstanding Bakery.”
On Monday, the foundation presented its 2024 winners in a special ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The event was livestreamed on YouTube.
Fujimoto’s Norimoto Bakery is on Stevens Avenue. Its website describes it as “European baking, Japanese sensibility, Maine ingredients.”
Fujimoto beat competitors from Washington, D.C., Doral and Miami, Florida, Phoenix and Chicago.
When she won, she took to the stage with her hands over her mouth as an announcer noted she came to Portland from her native Japan to pursue a career in journalism.
But when she got here, she went to Fore Street restaurant and gave a handwritten note to Chef Sam Hayward to ask to be a part of the restaurant’s pastry program, which kicked off her baking career.
The foundation described her cuisine as “European/Japanese baking,” with babka buns, danishes and chocolate sake cake listed among her signature dishes.
On stage, she wore an ivory-colored Japanese kimono and running shoes. She confessed she didn’t expect to win and said, “I have to gather myself.”
She thanked and named her team of six staff members, which she said was a small team but “a golden team.” She also earned laughs by poking fun at her own ensemble.
“I want to thank my mom for letting me wear this kimono tonight. It’s so uncomfortable, but it’s so worth it,” she said. She then pointed to her feet, saying, “I’m sorry I’m wearing sneakers tonight, but I work in a kitchen, you know?”
She then got serious and thanked the restaurant community in Portland that helped shape her career after she arrived 23 years ago at age 30.
“I was just able to continue working in a kitchen even though I had no experience at all, just because I enjoyed it so much,” she said. “So, I want to thank them all, the food people in Portland, Maine. Thank you for making me a baker.”
ZU Bakery has been on Clark Street in Portland for the past year and a half, according to its founder, Barak Olins, but he first started the bakery in Freeport in 2000 in a barn lent to him by his brother and sister-in-law. ZU Bakery’s website describes itself as offering “delicious, rustic breads + pastry.”
ZU Bakery beat out four other competitors from Albuquerque, NM, Long Beach, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Hudson, NY. The announcement came immediately after Fujimoto’s, prompting one commentator to say, “Well, it looks like Portland, Maine might be vying for pastry capital of America!”
As Olins came to the stage, the commentators noted his bakery was known for its wood-fired ovens. The foundation listed ZU Bakery’s cuisine as “French,” with scones and pavé listed among the bakery’s signature pastries.
Olins displayed similar humility to Fujimoto. As he pulled notes from his pocket he quipped, “I wrote something thinking I would never read this.”
Like Fujimoto, Olins also thanked his staff, also mentioning all three by name, then added, “Actually, Norimoto has a very big crew compared to me.”
Olins also thanked his parents for buying him his first frying pan at age 8. He thanked his wife, saying, “She inherited a bakers’ schedule without choosing to be a baker.”
Olins also thanked a Benihana chef he did not name, who helped inspire him to be a chef nearly 50 years ago.
“There I tasted the flavors of well-made, fast-cooked food and saw the expression of cooking as a craft visible and generously accessible to the public,” he said.