Baltimore chef Cindy Wolf named finalist for James Beard Award for 8th time

For the eighth time, Cindy Wolf has been named a finalist for the James Beard Awards, one of the food industry’s top honors.

The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists at a conference Wednesday in Houston. Winners will be named at a gala May 6 in Chicago.

Clavel Mezcaleria, the Remington restaurant known for its innovative take on Mexican food, was named a semifinalist in the Outstanding Bar Program category, but did not go on to become a finalist.

Wolf was named to the Best Chef: Mid Atlantic list. She has been a finalist eight times and never won the category.

In a statement, Wolf said she was “honored, happy and excited to be nominated again. There is so much inspiration in this world of ours. I just want to keep absorbing it, to keep learning and moving forward.”

In 1995, Wolf opened Savannah, a restaurant at the Admiral Fell Inn in Fells Point with her then-husband Tony Foreman. After a two year stint there, the pair moved the investor-backed restaurant to the end of Exeter Street and renamed it Charleston.

This is the 29th year for the awards. Baltimore has taken home just one James Beard Award: Spike Gjerde, the chef of such restaurants as Woodberry Kitchen and Parts & Labor, won Best Chef: Mid Atlantic in 2015.