For the first time, the James Beard Awards has made space for immigrants at the culinary table. This year over half of the finalists were either born in another country or are the children of immigrants to the United States. But despite their overdue formal recognition, the chefs and restaurateurs who power the industry remain unrecognized and stigmatized outside this awards ceremony and many say there is still much more work to do to make America a more inclusive place to eat. 

In this episode: 

• Yara Elmjouie (@yaraelmjouie) Host of Eat This with Yara on AJ+ 
• Marissa Tapia Gencarelli (@marissagencarelli) Owner of Yoli Tortilleria 

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Chloe K. Li, Miranda Lin, and Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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