Tony Conte, chef and owner of Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana in Darnestown, was announced Wednesday as a finalist for a prestigious 2024 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award.
“I would’ve never imagined that this would happen for me,” Conte told MoCo360 on Thursday. “It’s super exciting for what we’re trying to do in this little space here in Darnestown. It’s pretty amazing.”
The 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards are one of five separate awards programs of the James Beard Foundation.
Conte is a finalist for the best chef category for the Mid-Atlantic, which includes Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Maryland; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; and Virginia. Kevin Tien, executive chef of Moon Rabbit in the District is the other finalist for the award presented by the foundation.
“The James Beard Awards are among the nation’s most prestigious honors recognizing leaders in the culinary and food media industries, and those in the broader food systems,” according to the James Beard Foundation website.
Time magazine has noted that the foundation’s annual awards are considered the “Oscars of the food world.”
Conte was announced as one of the 20 semifinalists for the best chef award in January.
He was chosen as a semifinalist in the same category in 2018, and that year, Jeremiah Langhorne of The Dabney in the District won the award.
Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana, at 12207 Darnestown Road in the Quince Orchard Marketplace, opened in 2015. It is open Wednesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. until the dough runs out, according to the website.
Bethesda Magazine restaurant critic David Hagedorn praised Conte’s pies in a 2019 story.
“When it comes to pizza, Conte is at his most refined with his egg and black truffle pie, its crust ringed with big, charred, airy bubbles of dough. In the center, a poached egg quivers, waiting to be broken open so its bright orange yolk can mingle with crushed San Marzano tomatoes, melted fontina and smoked scamorza cheese and an abundance of sliced black truffles,” Hagedorn wrote. “That’s four-star eating in an 11-inch circle.”
In 2020, the Washington Post ranked Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana as one of the top 10 pizza places in the D.C. area.
James Beard award winners will be announced at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, according to the foundation’s website.