Portland added two more James Beard Awards to its ever-growing trove Monday night. For the third year in a row, Gregory Gourdet was crowned a winner. And Langbaan, the first and longest-running restaurant in chef Akkapong "Earl" Ninsom’s empire (Yaowarat, Hat Yai, Paadee), won in the Outstanding Restaurant category—one of the night's biggest and most competitive awards. 

Gourdet took home the regional title of Best Chef Northwest, which followed his restaurant Kann winning Best New Restaurant last year and his cookbook, Everyone’s Table, winning in 2022. Despite his formidable momentum, the win was hardly guaranteed; it’s hard to think of another chef that has pulled off such a hat trick. 

In a tailed suit with blue and green feathers on its shoulders (to represent the national bird of Haiti, the Hispaniolan trogons), Gourdet took the stage for his acceptance speech and remembered aloud moving to Portland in 2008, how the change of scenery marked a turning point in his sobriety. “Today,” he said, “I am able to gratefully work at a hub for Haitian culture and Haitian storytelling—in one of the most random places: the Pacific Northwest.”

Random as his adopted home may be, last week Gourdet announced a partnership that will bring his culinary world bicoastal, as he helms Printemps New York, opening five different restaurant concepts for the Parisian department store as it expands to his hometown of New York City.

On stage, he went on to champion the industry’s progress in empowering diverse teams and women-led kitchens. “These are not catch words,” he said, “they’re systems that work,” before signing off with a “Happy Pride.” 

Ninsom and his group of restaurants have been nominated in several categories over the decade that Langbaan has endured as Portland’s hardest table to book (maybe it’s a tie with Kann these days). The group was first recognized as a semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category in 2015; however, hard as it is to believe, this is its first win.

“Long time coming,” one host said as Langbaan was announced, stating what everyone was thinking. In his acceptance speech, Ninsom said that since he started Langbaan 10 years ago, the goal has been “to show that Thai food has much, much more than America has seen.” His intimate tasting menu restaurant focuses on a single region of Thailand, switching regions bimonthly to elaborate on the nuance of distinct cuisines across the country and subvert the notion that Thai food is one single thing. 

If you’re reading this, you’ll likely remember that Portlanders took home seven awards last year, more than any other city, including Portland Monthly’s incoming editor in chief, Brooke Jackson-Glidden, for her writing at Eater PDX. Six local chefs and restaurants made it through as finalists this year—which is, to be extremely clear, no small feat. And while two medals to last year’s seven might seem like a drop, these are big, big awards that continue to cement Portland as a culinary city on par with any other. We know this, but it’s always nice to have it stamped out with some hardware.