Chef Sara Bradley, named a 2025 James Beard Foundation Award Nominee for Best Chef: Southeast!
- Information VOICE_TRIBUNE
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Press Release
We are so excited to share that chef Sara Bradley, owner/proprietor of freight house in Paducah, has been named a 2025 James Beard Foundation Award Nominee for Best Chef: Southeast!
“I’m ecstatic,” Bradley said. “This is a tremendous honor and I’m grateful for the team at freight house — this recognizes all their hard work, too. I’m also hopeful this will encourage more people to explore Paducah and all we have to offer.”
Sara is one of five nominees for Best Chef: Southeast, joined by fellow Kentuckian chef Noam Bilizter (MeeshMeesh Mediterranean, Louisville, KY) as well as Jake Howell (Peninsula, Nashville, TN), Silver Iocovozzi (Neng Jr.’s, Asheville, NC) and Robbie Robinson (City Limits Barbeque, West Columbia, SC).
The foundation announced the nominees Wednesday, following up on their previous semifinalist announcement in January. The 2025 James Beard Awards Ceremonies will be held in Chicago on June 16.
Tune in to see Sara competing on Food Network’s Tournament of Champions this Sunday at 8 p.m. eastern / 7 p.m. central.
About Sara:
Sara Bradley (she/her) learned to cook from her mother and grandmother, and credits them — and their Appalachian upbringing and Jewish heritage — with heavily influencing her food philosophy. She’s cooked professionally for 20 years including for Michelin-starred chefs in New York and Chicago before returning home to Western Kentucky to open her own restaurant, freight house, in 2015. Sara believes food is more than just eating — food has a story, many stories — that she can tell through her dishes that highlight traditional Southern flavors, ingredients, and techniques paired with international inspiration. The restaurant also boasts an extensive bourbon collection and an innovative craft cocktail menu.
She works to build an equitable and compassionate work environment that promotes work/life balance — as the mom of two young daughters, Sara knows how important that is and believes parents in the industry shouldn’t have to choose between career and family.
The James Beard Awards named Sara a Best Chef: Southeast nominee in 2025; she has also participated in James Beard Foundation’s Bootcamp for Policy and Change, cooked at the James Beard House in 2018 and was a featured chef at the James Beard Foundation’s Taste America Louisville event in 2019. Sara is a two-time Top Chef runner-up, having been a finalist on both Top Chef: Season 16 Kentucky (2019) and Top Chef: Season 20 World All Stars (2023). In August 2024, Sara won the first Food Network Chopped Legends tournament; in August 2023 she won the Chopped: All-American Showdown, advancing as the South regional champion and winning the grand finale. In spring 2025, she will appear on Food Network’s Tournament of Champions VI.