Milwaukee's Dane Baldwin of the Diplomat wins a James Beard Award

Dane Baldwin, the chef-owner of the Diplomat on Milwaukee's lower east side, is the winner of this year's James Beard Award for best chef in the Midwest.

Baldwin won the award at a ceremony in Chicago on Monday night that recognized chefs and others in the hospitality industry from across the country.

The chef first became a semifinalist for the award in 2019 and a finalist this year, the first live awards ceremony of the pandemic.

Baldwin was chosen over two other Milwaukee finalists, Karen Bell of Bavette la Boucherie, 217 N. Broadway, and Gregory León of Amilinda, 315 E. Wisconsin Ave., and three chefs from Minneapolis.

They were Yia Vang, a former Port Edwards, Wisconsin, resident who now owns Union Kitchen in Minneapolis and has held pop-ups in Milwaukee; Jorge Guzmán, chef-owner of Petite Leon in Minneapolis who worked briefly in La Crosse and has cooked at collaborative dinners in Milwaukee; and Sean Sherman, who opened the indigenous restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis.

Baldwin appeared at a near loss for words at the ceremony at the Lyric Opera, which was livestreamed. He thanked his wife, Anna, "who has definitely been the pillar behind anything I’ve done since the day I met her."

And, he said in his acceptance remarks, "I want to thank everyone who’s ever taken a chance on me."

Baldwin said in an interview Monday night with the Journal Sentinel that he shared a look with his wife as his name was called for the award. "It was the realization that someone's noticing. Hard work is worth doing," he said.

Baldwin opened the Diplomat in 2017 at 815 E. Brady St., on the street's quieter western end. He refers to his food as "just fancy enough" — dishes often rooted in comfort or family foods, but presented in a modern way.

He'd previously been chef at the Bartolotta group's Mr. B's Steakhouse in Brookfield and had worked at Carnevor with the SURG group, where he picked up his pastry skills.

The Diplomat was a Journal Sentinel best new restaurant in 2017; it was noted that "Baldwin’s history results in a style that’s his own."

And the Diplomat was on the news organization's list of Top 30 restaurants in 2018, debuting at No. 4, and in 2019, the last year the list was published before the pandemic.

"It means a lot," Baldwin said of the Beard award. "This embarks on a new meaning to a new normal, and it lays to rest the last couple of years to us, to some degree."

He noted that it's been less than a year since the Diplomat reopened for in-person dining in the pandemic, on July 28, 2021. The restaurant is open only Wednesday through Saturday, and he said he'd been considering whether to open another day. Winning the award might hasten that.

"For me, the rest of the night, it's a time of reflection," Baldwin said. "I've had so many congratulations come through from chefs I used to work for or people I used to work with. It's such a reminder that so many people can shape a career."

"I know there's a lot of people tipping their hat to me" and thinking, "he was worth investing into," Baldwin said. "That's not lost on me."

Previously in Beard awards this year, Solly's Grille of Glendale in February won the foundation's America's Classics Award, given to six regional restaurants with "timeless appeal." Owner Glenn Fieber was at Monday's awards in Chicago.

The last Milwaukee chef to win a James Beard Award for best chef Midwest was Justin Aprahamian of Sanford in 2014.

Related: Baldwin recounts growing up on the north side and his path to owning a restaurant

Carol Deptolla has been reviewing restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 2008. She visits restaurants — unannounced — several times to better evaluate food and service and usually brings other diners to sample the menu widely. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers, working only for our readers.

Contact her at [email protected] or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Diplomat chef-owner Dane Baldwin wins a James Beard Award