West Virginia Chef Paul Smith was named the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Southeast Monday night at the awards ceremony in Chicago.
Updated on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at 5 p.m.
West Virginia Chef Paul Smith was named the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Southeast Monday night at the awards ceremony in Chicago.
Smith, who last year became the foundation’s first ever finalist from West Virginia, took top honors in this year’s star-studded ceremony at the Lyric Opera.
“Two words that have never been mentioned here before: West Virginia,” Smith said in his acceptance speech.
Chef Paul Smith accepts the 2024 James Beard Award for the southeast. He is the first person from West Virginia to do so.
Photo Credit: Maria Young/West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
A crowd of hundreds watching a live stream of the event at Charleston’s Capitol Market erupted in prolonged cheers as a presenter told the audience, “He grew up in West Virginia literally standing on a milk crate stirring his grandfather’s Sunday sauce. Today at his restaurant, he tells the Appalachian food story. Paul Smith is … he’s a hometown hero, he really is.”
Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby, in the Capitol Market crowd, said the win puts West Virginia on the map as a culinary destination.
“It puts us on the map. When you think about culinary destinations, this absolutely puts us on the map,” Ruby said. “It’s one more thing that gives people at a national level the idea that West Virginia is a destination.”
Gov. Jim Justice said in a Facebook post that the award “attracts visitors from around the world to experience the taste of Almost Heaven.”
The Southeast category in which Smith won includes Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.
**Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include comments from Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby and Gov. Jim Justice.
Asheville, North Carolina has an eclectic dining scene and one of its “hidden” gems is Neng Jr.’s. It serves elevated Filipino cuisine in a little restaurant that’s tucked away in an alley on Asheville’s artsy West Side. Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef visited and brings us this story.
This story originally aired in the May 5, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
The first thing I notice about Neng Jr.’s is its lively decor. There’s a green-tiled open kitchen, fire engine red countertops, and turquoise walls. Adorning the space are items from Chef and owner Silver Iocovozzi’s personal life — stuffed animals and well-worn books, trinkets from Iocovozzi’s mom for good luck, a quirky telephone in the shape of a red high heel and a vibrant painting of Iocovozzi’s husband, Cherry.
But, what I’m here for is Iocovozzi’s popular Filipino creation — the adobo.
“To me, it is like a quintessential Filipino dish, and it evokes all those flavors,” Iocovozzi says. “I think a lot of people get their minds blown by it, and I love that.”
Inside the kitchen, Iocovozzi cooks in a high-powered wok over an open flame. The adobo is served with duck on the menu. But today, Iocovozzi makes the adobo with pork cheeks that he has on hand. The adobo sauce simmers while he prepares a bitter melon relish to set off the adobo. The dish has a uniquely Filipino flavor profile.
“I would say it’s really a kind of a tangy cuisine, lots of vinegar and lots of sour,” Iocovozzi says. “There’s a lot of tart aspects to it.”
Silver Iocovozzi, chef and owner of Neng Jr.’s.
Photo Credit: Will Crooks/Courtesy
The bitter melon, a spiky cucumber-looking gourd, is almost too tangy on its own. But paired with the rich and silky adobo, my mouth waters for more. The dish is an example of the taste and technical skill Iocovozzi is known for.
Neng Jr.’s was recently nominated for a James Beard award, and Iocovozzi was named one of Time Magazine’s Next 100 People to Watch. He traces the start of his cooking journey back to his mother. He has fond childhood memories of her cooking.
“She would sit down on the ground with this really heavy cutting board and tenderize meat and marinate it, and it was a really simple marinade. It was just soy and oil and garlic and onion and black pepper. But it tasted so good to me,” Iocovozzi says.
Iocovozzi and his mom loved the soy, garlic and onion flavors. His mom is Filipino, and his dad was from North Carolina.
“They met in Japan. My dad was stationed there; he was a Marine. My mom, a Filipino woman, was working in Japan at a karaoke bar. She was an entertainer,” Iocovozzi says.
Iocovozzi’s parents met and married, and his mom immigrated to the United States. His mom was the only person of color in her new family. Staying connected to her Filipino heritage was difficult.
“My mom was really seeking some comfort of home and realizing she couldn’t find that representation of Filipino food or cooking, or even that warmth of culture that Filipinos bring,” Iocovozzi says.
But she found a way to share her culture with Iocovozzi.
“I would go with her to the Asian market and get all these ingredients that she could tell me about and get excited about. Because I think that was like the little amount of representation that she could share with me,” Iocovozzi says.
It wasn’t until visiting Manila and Batangas in the Philippines that Iocovozzi fully understood his mom’s culture and the link between food and celebration. “I grew up between Manila and eastern North Carolina, where my grandparents lived. And [I] really had a lot of experience in Batangas. Batangas is coastal in the Philippines where we would go visit. And because we were in town, they would just bring a reason to have a fiesta and a big celebration around food,” Iocovozzi says.
Those fiestas often centered on butchering and cooking a whole hog. “This was the first time I’d seen a pig be sacrificed. A lot of the cookery in Batangas is no electricity, no gas, just fire. And to see the way … these people that are living in these provinces cook with fire and break down pig and really know how to kill a pig with their hands — it’s an experience I’ll never forget. And also understanding how much I can appreciate food and where it comes from,” Iocovozzi says.
Understanding where food comes from — and how to prepare it — was a quest that took Iocovozzi from the Philippines to the American South and around the world in the restaurant business.
He got his start in Asheville as a dishwasher in 2011 after a friend suggested he’d like the city. Soon, he attended culinary school in the area and worked as a chef at Buxton Hall BBQ — an Asheville institution — before eventually cooking at award-winning restaurants in Tokyo, New York and Grand Cayman Island.
In 2020, he returned to Asheville to build his own community around food. Within two months, he secured a building with a takeout window for what would later become Neng Jr.’s. When designing Neng Jr.’s, Iocovozzi was as intentional about the space itself as the menu.
“I just want to create a space that shows some representation for those that have been seeking it and know that it can exist,” Iocovozzi says.
At Neng Jr.’s, Iocovozzi created a space that welcomes people of all ethnicities, genders, and orientations — just like Iocovozzi’s mom made room for her culture when she moved to the States. “I’m putting myself out there and my heart,” Iocovozzi says, “It’s really a passion project.”
The exterior of Neng Jr.’s, located in a narrow alley in Asheville, has a brightly painted mural.
Photo Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef /West Virginia Public Broadcasting
And it was also a way to honor his mom, whose Filipino nickname was Naneng.
“It’s an affectionate name for a young girl. And I don’t, you know, identify as that, but … Neng Jr.’s is an iteration of that nickname stemming from my mom’s nickname. Because I’m her mini-me,” Iocovozzi says.
Iocovozzi shares his story through Neng Jr.’s, embodying the flavors, warmth and joyfulness of home. “I don’t think of myself as just like a restaurant in Asheville. I think of Neng’s as a restaurant in the world,” Iocovozzi says. “It’s so important to be a Filipino restaurant in Asheville because the people need to know what this food tastes like. And also understand this level of hospitality that comes from a Filipino.”
The Filipino traditions in Chef Iocovozzi’s family history continue to shape the restaurant. Iocovozzi is in the process of building a stage modeled after the original karaoke bars in Japan, like the one where his parents met.
The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.
ul Smith is one of two West Virginia chefs in the running for one of the most prestigious awards in the culinary world. Reporter Randy Yohe spoke with Smith, who said it’s a humbling honor just to be nominated.
Charleston Chef Paul Smith is one of two West Virginia chefs in the running for one of the most prestigious awards in the culinary world.
Reporter Randy Yohe spoke with Smith, who said it’s a humbling honor just to be nominated.
Yohe: Chef Paul, you’re a semifinalist for the 2023 James Beard Award. What does that recognize?
Smith: This is for the best chef of the southeast. The James Beard Foundation recognizes culinary expertise in numerous different areas, not only in the country, but also in different facets of the business. So this is Best Chef. It is South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. So it is a huge honor for us, as you know, my family of restaurants. So 1010 Bridge, The Pitch, Barcadas, Ellen’s Ice Cream. This is a win for all of us. It’s really a team effort. I get to be the window dressing for it, but it really is a huge honor for all of us.
Yohe: This award is selective and prestigious, isn’t it?
Smith: It absolutely is. I would say it’s the equivalent of the Academy Awards to the chef community. So for me, the nomination is the win. James Beard nominated chef, is basically saying Oscar nominated actor or Academy Award nominated actor. So for me and for our team, it’s great for the city. It’s great for the state. You know, I’ve already won as far as I’m concerned.
Yohe: There’s more to being a chef than just working at a cutting board, a stove or a grill, right?
Smith: Oh, absolutely. I usually go to the gym at about 5:30 in the morning. I’m at one of the restaurants, probably between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. It’s about setting yourself up for success. It’s about everything in place. It’s about not only your physical, but also your mental needs. It started when I was standing on the milk crate with my grandfather, probably about the same time I learned to walk – to stir in the Sunday gravy with him. That really has culminated in operating in these restaurants.
Yohe: They serve a wide variety of food at your restaurants to a variety of customers, tell me about that.
Smith: 1010 Bridge is mostly, we say, Appalachian cuisine with a little bit of a low country flair, but kind of nouveau Appalachia. It’s taking indigenous ingredients from this area and elevating it to a point where it’s fine dining, but it’s also approachable fine dining. We don’t have white tablecloths. The service and the drinks and the cocktails and the mixology and how we play it is all fine dining, but you can wear jeans and a T-shirt.
The Pitch is thoughtful Bar food. We source our ingredients locally from our area farmers. It’s still pizza, burgers, wings and fun appetizers, but it’s just done with that fine dining attention to detail. Barcadas is a Filipino restaurant. So you know that Filipino flavor profiles, the vinegars, the soy sauce, the ginger, the garlic, the scallions, but also making it approachable.
Chef Paul Smith giving a culinary arts demonstration at Charleston’s Capital Market. Courtesy Paul Smith
We’re in West Virginia, so we have to make it a little bit of something for everybody. So we’ve got burgers and wings, and kind of one of our favorite dishes is our Fili Cheesesteak, you know, Filipino. It’s got soy and a little bit of garlic and ginger, and calamansi, and it just kind of elevates it a little.
Ellen’s was a staple here in Charleston for 25 years, and she trusted us to keep the brand going. With all of our ice cream flavors, we’re thoughtful about it. We source locally, and we support local. I think it’s all about supporting the local community. If someone asks me what kind of chef I am, I say I really support the community and I’m the community chef. I’m not really farm to table, I’m not fine dining. I don’t have a specific genre of food that I like to cook. It’s about creating the experience for the guests.
Yohe: You’re known as a chef ambassador for West Virginia. I’m told that’s also something you take great pride in.
Smith: So this is the inaugural for that designation. The governor and the West Virginia Department of Tourism announced the Chef Ambassador program. I represent the Metro Valley. It’s a huge, huge honor to work really closely with the governor’s office, the Department of Tourism, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, to really spread the word and to utilize local but to really get the word out. We have some of the best culinarians in West Virginia. We have some of the best restaurants that I’ve ever been to in West Virginia, and to be able to showcase that and be a part of the fraternity of chefs and represent West Virginia to the best of my ability is huge.
Yohe: What have you learned, and where have you traveled, to know how to please a palate, if you will?
Smith: I started my culinary journey way back with my grandfather on Fridays at the Glen Ferris Inn helping him with the Italian nights. I think that’s where I got my start. I worked at Dutchess Bakery through high school, baking bread and honing my baking and pastry skills. I went to culinary school at the CIA in Hyde Park, New York – the Culinary Institute of America – for two years and then I continued my education in Napa Valley, studying pastry and wine and really getting, you know, immersing myself in the hospitality culture that is Napa. That’s kind of where everything clicked.
I was classically French trained. But everything was farm to table and all the resources were there, the fresh produce, the viticulture, the hospitality culture. It was just awesome. Then I was recruited as the pastry chef for the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. So I was a pastry chef at the Biltmore and went to work at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida, which was one of the most valuable experiences. Their culinary team was second to none. At that time, it was the best hotel in North America.
I learned a ton there and went to the Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Florida, which was huge. It’s a very small, but very prestigious club, so that was a valuable experience. Then, I went straight to the opposite. Not really the opposite as far as cuisine goes, but the opposite as far as paying attention to the food costs. I was the executive chef back home at the University of Charleston for three years. That allowed me to really learn the business side of it and pay attention to food costs and utilizing not just the rib eye, and the tenderloin and the strip, but the other cuts where you have to get very creative in what you’re doing.
And then I was a corporate chef at Buzz Food Service. I will say that Dickinson and Angela Gould really gave me the platform to really be who I am today. That’s when people really started calling me Chef Paul. And that’s when I represented Buzz, to the best of my ability, and helped them to get to that next level. I got to work with so many great chefs around the great state of West Virginia, and learn and teach and consult. And I was always preaching this rising tide. We all need to work together to raise all of our ships.
It’s just been a wild and fantastic journey, doing some consulting on a couple of different projects in Lewisburg and my philosophy is helping. So we’ve got to help each other. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel and learn and learn from some of the best chefs in the country. Now my job is to teach and help everybody to get to the level that they want to get to.
Yohe: The James Beard award finalists are announced next Wednesday. Then what happens?
Smith: They select five, and again, I’m not really under any delusion that I’m going to be going to Chicago to the gala. It would be exactly like the Oscars of the chef world. You get dressed up, there’s an award ceremony, and I get to rub elbows with the best chefs in the country, which just blows my mind. I mean, it’s funny when I was talking to friends, and to my wife, and people in the restaurant, and I’m naming off the chefs, the 20 chefs that are on the list, and I’ve been to a couple of their restaurants. I’m like, man, these guys are a big deal. And they’re like, dude, you’re on the list. You’re a big deal. I don’t really look at myself that way. I have to stay humble. Now is when the real hard work starts. You have got to bring your A game every day.
When people come to 1010, or they come to The Pitch, or Barcadas, or Ellen’s, they’re going to expect a higher level than they already did just because my name is attached to it. I just want to make sure that everybody knows that my teams in all of these restaurants and my partners and all of these ventures, they’re the ones that are doing all the heavy lifting, I get to be nominated as Best Chef in the Southeast, but it’s a huge team effort. West Virginia went from just an absolutely wonderful place to live to a food destination overnight. I’m honored to just be in the same sentence with some of these chefs around the country. I mean, it’s a huge, huge honor.
——
Ramin Mirzakhani of Laury’s Restaurant in Charleston is also a James Beard Award semifinalist.
