New York City restaurants won three of the six major national awards: outstanding chef (Jungsik Yim of Jungsik ), outstanding hospitality ( Atomix) and outstanding restaurateur (Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr of Frenchette, Le Rock and Le Veau d’Or ).

Chefs and restaurants were honored on Monday night with James Beard Awards, one of the US culinary community’s highest accolades.

Naiker is new to the James Beard Awards, as this is his first nomination, and it landed him in the finals for the Emerging Chef category. He was born in Fiji and raised in California's Bay Area. He has his residency at 51 Courtland St. within the speakeasy, The Courtland Club. His kitchen is barely larger than a closet, but he makes magic there.