For Tacoma’s first James Beard nominee, cooking award-worthy food is the easy part
Derek Bray and his staff at The Table in Tacoma are still wrapping their heads around the news they received on an otherwise typical winter morning in late January, but they did scribble an important note on the chalkboard wall outside the entrance to the Sixth Avenue restaurant: “James Beard Baby!”
The chef and owner was nominated for the 2024 James Beard Foundation’s awards in the Best Chef: Pacific and Northwest category. He joins 19 of his peers in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii on the semifinalist list that on April 3 will be trimmed to five finalists. The process culminates in a ceremony in Chicago on June 10.
It’s a big moment for Bray — who studied painting and sculpture in college only to fall in love with restaurants flipping burgers at a bar — and the team that day in and day out shapes his humble, hyper-seasonal eatery that will turn 10 next year.
It’s also a big moment for Tacoma.
“As a staff overall we’re still kind of like, ‘Ok… really?’” joked Bray, 37, whose nod makes him the city’s first nominee in any category since the awards debuted in 1990.
“It feels a little unjustified, at my age, to be like, ‘You’re the first!’” he said, but “the James Beard nomination is awesome. It’s good for our city. Besides that, there’s some other restaurants doing really good food, too. I’d be plenty happy if there were more people making special trips to Tacoma in general but Sixth Ave, and going and trying some of the new places.”
In short: “I’d love if more people came to Tacoma to eat. If I had a billboard sign, I would say, ‘Find your independent restaurants. Eat at places that are owned by people in Tacoma.’”
GETTING THE NEWS
The New York City-based nonprofit released the names early (Eastern time) on Jan. 25. Bray’s sommelier and part-owner Trevor Hamilton texted him.
“He was like, ‘You won’t believe this,’ and sent me a picture and I was like, ‘What? Oh, OK, cool,” he recalled.
“It’s something wonderfully unexpected, and it feels good that, you know, the restaurant’s being recognized,” said the chef, also a father of two. “It’s been a trying few years for all of us … so it’s a real blessing. I couldn’t be more proud of our team. It’s a real testament to them.”
He stressed the importance of his staff multiple times and politely insisted The News Tribune include Hamilton and his chef de cuisine, Craig Tronset, in photos scheduled for a few days later.
During that visit, Tronset rolled out a plate of beautifully candied carrots over a pillow of ricotta with hints of lemon and thyme. A bite with crunchy pistachios and a pull through hot-honey exemplifies what The Table does so well: These are carrots! A pile of frisée, lightly tossed in a champagne vinaigrette with shallots and hazelnuts, next to bright-pink beet “hummus” takes a decidedly anti-winter stance. Never skip the opportunity to dip a triangle of perfectly grilled Macrina sourdough into the signature braised elk, served in a cast-iron skillet with an ancho-spiced huckleberry sauce.
“The staff right now is just wonderful,” continued Bray. Most of the kitchen and front-of-house have been with them for two years, which might not sound like a long time, but restaurants everywhere continue to struggle to find and retain good talent.
He and Hamilton have “come to a little bit of maturity on riding the ups and downs a bit because it was giving me palpitations on a regular basis,” after pandemic closures, he said.
“One of the things we’ve really done intentionally is we try really hard to honor that people should have a life. Coming up in restaurants, I didn’t really ever get that vibe. You ask for a weekend off — ‘Did your mom die?’ We’re executing food at a really good level. We can live without one of our cooks for a night.”
That feature likely played into the James Beard nomination, the source of which remains a mystery, said Bray. Anyone can submit an application on behalf of a chef or business. Recommendations also are accepted by the award judges and subcommittee members, which include some winners from the past three cycles along with other industry professionals and food media. The subcommittee chooses the 20 semifinalists in each category who will be visited over the next few weeks.
In recent years, following a shake-up of the geographic regions, nomination criteria and vetting process, the James Beard Awards reached further into the less-buzzed-about corners of America and began seriously considering more than what’s on the plate. Now nominees must submit an impact statement describing their commitment to community, equity and sustainability.
The Table regularly hosts private dinners for small nonprofits and contributes to auctions. Bray helped launch Grit City Gala, the annual fundraising dinner for Tacoma Farmers Market. Before he opened his first restaurant, he worked for Tacoma Rescue Mission, and for most of the last 15 years he and his team have cooked free Thanksgiving community dinners with the City of University Place. When restaurant dining rooms were closed in 2020, he offered free meals to fellow restaurant workers.
“That was part of our ethos when we opened the restaurant,” he said. “We wanted it to be something in the community where we were doing good work, people always felt welcome and the food was at an excellent level really consistently. It’s this mashup between caring for your staff and encouraging them to have a life outside of the restaurant, and our desire to work hard to give back to our community.”
The easier part, he said, “is to do food well.”
THE TABLE - TACOMA
▪ 2715 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-327-1862, thetabletacoma.com
▪ Monday-Saturday 5-9 p.m.
▪ Reservations always recommended on weekends, but now suggested on most days — book on Tock
This story was originally published February 9, 2024 at 10:18 AM.