We’re so proud of our co-founder Irene Li! She is the youngest ever recipient of the award. The James Beard Foundation presented Irene Li of Boston with a 2022 Leadership Award in a ceremony hosted by Chef Bryant Terry on Sunday, June 12 in Chicago, IL.

In a panel discussion with fellow Leadership winners, Li called for more transparency and guest education about what happens under the surface in the restaurant industry: “I hope we can love our communities and our restaurants enough to think critically about our dining experiences,” including where ingredients come from and how workers are treated.

The James Beard Awards are known as the highest honors in the food and restaurant worlds and the Leadership Awards “spotlight the important and complex realms of sustainability, food justice, and public health. They raise awareness of these timely issues by celebrating the visionaries responsible for creating a healthier, safer, more equitable, and sustainable food system.” This year’s awardees also included Chef Mavis Jay of Drive Change NYC, Erika Allen of Urban Growers Collective, Monica Ramirez of Justice for Migrant Women, and the Understory Oakland team. Together, they were presented onstage at the Lyric Opera during the Restaurant & Chef Awards.

Along with the Mei Mei team, Li also hosted a reception to honor the 2022 nominees of East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander descent. For the first time in the history of the awards, this group represented more than one-third of the entire nominee list. The nominees and guests gathered at the restaurant Jeong, owned by Dave Park and Jen Tran, to connect and share stories. The 2022 Lifetime Achievement award winner Chef Martin Yan was in attendance, and in a toast remarked that he accepted his award “on behalf of all the hard-working chefs and culinary professionals all over the world” who work for modest pay and too often little recognition. Best Chef Northwest and Pacific region Nominee and Top Chef finalist Chef Sheldon Simeon thanked Li for being “our spokesperson and bringing us together.”

Li is now raising a pre-seed round of funding for Prepshift, her startup that provides restaurant operators with tools and resources to streamline onboarding and training and build positive workplace culture. Li is driven to build Prepshift so that all restaurants and their workers can thrive.