i. Biography
Jacob Potashnick won the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes, a recognition tied to the farm-to-table tasting-menu cooking he serves as chef and owner of Feld in Chicago, United States. The award gives a clear frame to his work: contemporary, produce-driven cuisine built around change, seasonality, and a restaurant that opened with unusual ambition.
The Honours
The 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes is Potashnick’s defining public accolade. It places his name among chefs recognized for regional excellence, but the achievement is best understood through the specific format of his restaurant: a tasting-menu project shaped by farm-to-table cooking and an intense focus on produce. That recognition followed a debut that was exacting in scale. In 2024, Feld opened with an elaborate 30-course tasting menu, a format that made the meal itself the central argument for the chef’s point of view. Public attention had begun before the dining room opened. Potashnick rose to TikTok prominence by chronicling his journey toward opening a restaurant, turning the run-up to service into part of the public story around his cooking.
The Craft
At Feld, Potashnick’s work is farm-to-table and produce-driven. The restaurant has been described as a very produce-driven tasting spot, with a goal to change the menu just about every night. That near-nightly change is central to the craft on the plate. Rather than treating the tasting menu as a fixed script, the kitchen’s stated aim gives the format a moving structure, with produce determining much of the rhythm. His specialty is farm-to-table tasting-menu cooking. The cuisine is contemporary and farm-to-table, with the meal organized around a tasting format rather than à la carte service. The 30-course debut sharpened that identity from the start. A menu of that length requires sequencing, restraint, and constant attention to ingredients, especially when the restaurant’s guiding idea is produce first.
The Career
Before opening his own restaurant in Chicago, Potashnick cooked at Ernst in Berlin, Germany. That role forms a specific point in his career history before his work as a chef-owner. His rise also unfolded in public through TikTok, where he chronicled the process of trying to open a restaurant. That visibility did not replace the cooking; it became a documented path toward the room where the work would be served. As chef and owner of Feld, Potashnick now leads a Chicago restaurant defined by contemporary farm-to-table cuisine and tasting-menu structure. The through line is direct: produce-driven cooking, frequent menu change, and a format ambitious enough to launch with 30 courses. The James Beard honor in 2026 gave national weight to that approach without requiring a louder story than the food itself. The career arc runs from cooking at Ernst to opening a produce-led tasting spot in Chicago, then earning Best Chef: Great Lakes for the work being done there.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Jacob
What is Jacob Potashnick's most notable recognition?
Jacob Potashnick won the 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes.
What is Jacob Potashnick known for?
He is known for farm-to-table tasting-menu cooking and produce-driven, contemporary cuisine at Feld in Chicago.
What is Jacob Potashnick's current role?
Jacob Potashnick is chef and owner of Feld in Chicago, United States.
