This is L.A.’s big year for James Beard Awards — and what that means

Anajak Thai chef and co-owner Justin Pichetrungsi, who has taken over his family’s generational Thai restaurant in Sherman Oaks, won the James Beard Award as best chef: California on Monday. “Awards and recognition mean everything, and they mean nothing.” That’s how I concluded my thoughts this time last year on the results of the annual James Beard Foundation awards. Anajak Thai was The Times’ 2022 Restaurant of the Year, and Pichetrungsi was also one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs last year, so the accolades keep coming. — The headline on Jenn Harris’ latest column says it all: “The new L.A. sandwiches I can’t stop eating.” Xotica Erotica performs at the queer-owned Beach Garden Social Club in Long Beach.