The restaurant industry hasn’t begun to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but the James Beard Foundation is moving ahead with its annual awards: On May 4 (the original date for the annual James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago) the Foundation will announce the 2020 James Beard Awards finalists during a live-streamed, virtual event.

In mid-March, as the coronavirus shutdown began, the Foundation postponed the announcement originally scheduled for March 25 to focus on “[using] our voice and platform as a