Meet the two Kentucky chefs vying for the same James Beard Award

Kentucky has the distinction of being home to two chefs who’ve received nominations for the prestigious Best Chef: Southeast award from the James Beard Foundation.

Sara Bradley of Paducah’s freight house and Noam Bilitzer of Louisville’s MeeshMeesh Mediterranean will both be in Chicago for a June 16 ceremony that’s the culinary world’s equivalent of the Oscars.

SARA BRADLEY

When Sara Bradley was a psychology student at the University of Kentucky, she made extra money working in local restaurants like Logan’s Roadhouse and Portabellas, where she discovered her passion for cooking. After culinary school and stints at high-end restaurants in Birmingham, New York and Chicago, Bradley moved back to her hometown of Paducah and opened freight house, which specializes in southern and midwestern cooking like your grandmother might have made if she’d gone to culinary school, and honors Bradley’s combined Jewish and Appalachian heritage. Bradley has also become a one-woman dynasty on competitive cooking shows like “Chopped,” “Top Chef” and “Tournament of Champions,” finishing first or second every time. In this lightly edited exchange, she talks about her fierce Kentucky pride and her connections to Lexington and to the Kentucky Wildcats.

Q: How does it feel to be a James Beard Finalist? And how are you getting ready for the awards?

A: When I learned I’d been named a semi-finalist, I was ecstatic — it brought me to tears. When I got finalist, I could not believe it. I want to win, but I am so happy there are two people from Kentucky because I feel like we have an amazing food scene here that isn’t always recognized. It also doesn’t feel right to me to say that just “I got it,” because I think of it as the whole restaurant getting something. How am I preparing? I can just continue to do the best that I can (at freight house) to create an environment that is hospitable and welcoming and delicious for every person who steps foot in here. And I bought a really pretty pink dress.

Q: As an occasional visitor to Lexington, how would you describe Lexington’s food scene today?

A: Lexington has this really amazing robust food scene. What’s fabulous is you can go to any part of town and find something very different. I love that there is so much ethnic food there because there are people from all over the world living in Lexington. I also like that there are always new things popping up.

Q: From watching your appearances on TV, it seems like you’re working to honor the food of Kentucky but without being limited by it or any other parameter. Is that accurate and how do you strike that balance?

A: So you have a couple of options in life — one is to embrace things about you that make you special and the other is to hide from these things that are a little bit different. I am such a proud Kentuckian. I am proud that my Jewish heritage comes from Kentucky and my father’s Appalachian heritage comes from here. I am a champion for Paducah and for Kentucky. The way to hit the balance is to embrace the produce around you, the recipes people have cooked forever, and you add touches of your own personality to them.

Q: You’re a big UK basketball fan. And as part of “Top Chef: Kentucky,” you got to do competitive cooking on the floor of Rupp Arena and explain to host Padma Lakshmi that BBN stands for Big Blue Nation. As a Kentuckian and a UK basketball fan, how did it feel to enter the arena literally and figuratively?

A: I can’t count the number of games I went to with my grandfather or my parents growing up. Or how many times I stood waiting in line for the lottery as a student. To actually be on the floor was amazing and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Around these parts you don’t have to explain what BBN stands for, but here is Padma who is the head honcho, the big guns and I am explaining to her for once what something means — so it felt pretty good.

Q. If UK men’s basketball coach Mark Pope asked you to prepare a meal for the team, what would you suggest?

A. I would cook something wholesome and delicious — I would not cook something fancy. I would probably find out some of the players’ childhood favorites. I’d want to make them pot roast and mashed potatoes, like a really elevated Thanksgiving meal. The team is young, and they probably miss home cooking and they don’t always get that. I would make them something really comforting and then talk about rebounding. No, I have no pointers for the team. Go Cats!

NOAM BILITZER

Louisville chef Noam Bilitzer is vying for the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, and among his fans is his ostensible competition, fellow Kentucky chef Sara Bradley of Paducah. Bradley has visited Biltzer’s MeeshMeesh Mediterranean and said, “It was an absolutely fabulous meal. I am not surprised at all that he has been nominated.” She added, “I am loving that there are two chefs from Kentucky — two Jewish chefs from Kentucky,” among this year’s James Beard nominees.

Bilitzer was born in Israel before coming to the U.S. at age six, and his menu is a celebration of Levantine cuisine. Offerings like Freedom Run Farms Lamb Merguez, Moroccan Style Verlasso Salmon and Foie Gras Doughnuts helped MeeshMeesh Mediterranean make Yelp’s list of Best New Restaurants in the South and its list of Best New Restaurants in America. Accolades like those are great, sure, but Bilitzer says there’s nothing that warms a chef’s heart like the feedback he receives from guests who tell them that is one of his menu items “reminds them of their grandmother’s cooking or their travels overseas.”

Bilitzer grew up in Florida and moved around after culinary school before settling in Louisville, where he was pleased to find, “a very open community that really enjoys good food.” After working at restaurants like Proof and Red Hog, Bilitzer opened MeeshMeesh Mediterranean in 2023. Initially, he said, “Making payroll was the biggest fear.”

That has proven to be less of a challenge than trying to find a table for walk-in diners. MeeshMeesh (which means apricot in Hebrew and Arabic) is generally booked 60 days in advance. Stop by on any given night and you’re likely to find the tables, the departing diners and Bilitizer’s heart are all full. “I sometimes tear up,” he says, “because I can’t believe how well it’s going.”