Miami Chef Wins James Beard Award: What to Know

The Chang family has just made Miami culinary history — again. At the 2025 James Beard Awards in Chicago on Monday, June 16, Itamae AO chef Nando Chang walked away with one of the night's biggest honors: Best Chef: South, a category covering culinary talent from Florida to Louisiana. The win marks a career milestone for Chang, who has spent the past year redefining omakase through a Nikkei lens, and doing it all from a ten-seat counter tucked inside his sister's restaurant, Maty's.

It's a full-circle moment for the Chang family. Just last year, Nando's sister Valerie Chang took home the exact same award for her work at Maty's. Now, with both siblings holding James Beard medals, Midtown Miami might just be the most decorated square block in town.
The award comes just months after Itamae AO earned its first Michelin star. Small but mighty, the intimate omakase-style restaurant opened in 2024, blending Japanese technique with Peruvian soul, also called Nikkei cuisine.

Located through a separate entrance inside Maty's, the restaurant features a multi-course unconventional omakase menu served at three nightly seatings at the restaurant's ten-seat counter. Dishes are typically inspired by Nando's past, his upbringing, and the city of Miami. The menu as a whole blends Peruvian, Japanese, and tropical Miami flavors with what many have described as a "cool and unpretentious attitude." Previous menu items range from dry-aged fish to dishes like sashimi, nigiri, anticuchos, and aguadito.
The Chang family launched the original Itamae in 2018 as a food counter inside MIA Market (then called St. Roch Market) in the Miami Design District. Known for its Nikkei-style menu blending Peruvian and Japanese influences, the concept later expanded to a standalone space across Palm Court. Itamae was added to the New York Times’ 2021 "Restaurant List," and received a "Bib Gourmand" in Michelin's inaugural Florida guide in 2022. A year later, in 2023, Nando and Valerie Chang became the first siblings ever named to Food & Wine’s “Best New Chefs” list.

However, the original concept closed in 2023 as the family prepared for solo projects. Valerie Chang focused on opening Maty's, named after their grandmother, while Nando turned his attention to Itamae AO.

Itamae AO. 3225 NE First Ave., Miami; itamaeao.com