The Charlottesville 29

Tarik Sengul is a James Beard Award semifinalist. Less than four years after arriving in Charlottesville to open Smyrna with his friend Orhum Dikmen, Sengul has earned recognition from the nation’s most prestigious culinary awards.

The James Beard Foundation’s regional Best Chef Awards honor chefs in thirteen regions around the country, including the Mid-Atlantic, where Virginia is joined by Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. For the 2026 awards, Sengul is one of twenty semifinalists in the region, the foundation announced today. This is the first year Sengul was eligible, under the awards’ requirement of three years’ presence in a region.

At Smyrna, Sengul applies French classical training and Aegean flavors to Virginia ingredients to create a style of cuisine all his own. His excellence was immediately apparent to those in the know upon opening in 2022, as it became an instant chef favorite. Some foresaw Sengul’s success even earlier, like Christophe Bellanca, with whom Sengul worked at NYC’s  L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. An award-winning chef himself, Bellanca calls Sengul one of the best he has ever worked with, and “easily” worthy of a James Beard award. “No question,” Bellanca said.

From the list of semifinalists, five nominees will be announced on April 1, and winners will be announced June 15 at the 2026 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards in Chicago. Charlottesville chefs who have received James Beard semifinalist nods in the past include Jose de Brito, Angelo Vangelopoulos, Melissa Close-Hart, Peter Chang, and Ian Redshaw.