A Shreveport chef is being recognized nationally as a 2024 James Beard Award Semifinalist.
Hardette Harris with Us Up North is a semifinalist for the Best Chef: South (AL, AR, FL, LA, MS, PR) category.
Harris said in an interview with the USA Today Network, “it’s gratifying to see our food up north getting the spotlight because that’s really what it’s about. I’ve tried to show off our food and our food ways here and being recognized by James Beard has been the ultimate.”
Us Up North Kitchen is a restaurant that celebrates north Louisiana cuisine. Its motto is “Straight from the red dirt and fresh waters of North Louisiana, we offer you our soul in a bowl”.
In a post she made on Facebook, she said, “I’m still in shock. I have worked so hard. The kind of hard no one sees day to day and I’m still at it. Celebrating North Louisiana cuisine is what I do and to be recognized for it means the world to me.”
The James Beard Foundation was established in 1990 and awards exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media and broader food system.