Chicago Native, Virtue Owner Williams Wins James Beard Best Chef Honor

CHICAGO — Erick Williams has long been a rising star in Chicago’s culinary community, but the owner and chef at Virtue in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood has now officially reached new heights.

Williams, who opened Virtue in 2019, earned a prestigious culinary honor as a winner in the James Beard Foundation’s 2022 Restaurant and Chef Awards, presented Monday at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The awards are regarded as the Oscars of the culinary industry.

Williams won Best Chef For the Great Lakes Region a year after being nominated for the honor. Williams was selected for the Beard award after beating out other chefs from Chicago, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.

"I'm an inner-city kid at heart," Williams said at the awards ceremony on Monday. "I grew up in Lawndale and Austin, two of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods. And now I have a restaurant on Chicago's south side. It's important to me to not only be of the community, but part of the community."

He added: "I'm very honored to represent what we do at Virtue on the South side, and I think it’s a huge win for the South Side."

Virtue prides itself on Southern American cuisine and “leads with a culture of hospitality and kindness”, the restaurant’s website reads. It also prides itself on unpretentious service, timing, and providing great value.

In a letter signed by Williams on the website, the chef says:

“We didn’t get here of ourselves or by ourselves. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestry both distant and near,” the website said. “Without their struggles, their commitment to freedom, and their spirit of hope, we would have no place to dream, no place to explore, and no ambitions to follow. We are humbled and forever grateful for their tireless fight for equality. Thank you to all of our loving and passionate family, co-heirs of faith, extended family, friends, mentors, investors, creatives, contractors, vendors, counselors, and teammates both past and present."

The industry remains in a recovery phase after losing business during the pandemic and “still needs support,” James Beard Foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach said at the ceremony, according to a news release.

The awards honor not only individual winners but also “our entire industry — and the incredible resilience, fortitude, talent, and leadership so many have shown over the past two years,” Reichenbach said.

The awards had been on a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. During that time, the awards program “underwent a full audit of its policies and procedures, continuing the work to remove bias, increase transparency and accessibility, and make the program more aligned with the Foundation’s mission and values.”