Ask any New Englander where the region’s best food is, and they’ll point you to Boston, Portland, maybe Providence — but rarely New Hampshire. Thanks to chefs like Dover’s Evan Hennessey, that may change soon.
Last month, Hennessey won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Northeast, making him the first Granite Stater to win that honor, one of the most prestigious in the restaurant world.
Just two other New Hampshire restaurants have been recognized in the annual culinary competition: Polly’s Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill and the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, each won the America’s Classics award, which recognizes restaurants with “timeless appeal.”
(This story was co-reported by NHPR Audience Engagement Producers Elena Eberwein and Gia Orsino. Video production by Elena Eberwein.)
Hennessey's win adds momentum to New Hampshire’s growing food scene. In recent years, several other chefs have been named James Beard semifinalists: Nicole Nocella of Stalk, Lee Frank of Otis, Chris Viaud of The Lake Estate, and Kristina Zontini of Super Secret Ice Cream — which itself was a 2026 nominee for Outstanding Bakery.
In May, Dover was dubbed New England’s “most underrated dining destination” by Travel & Leisure, in no small part thanks to Hennessey himself.
After growing up in Dover, Hennessey left New Hampshire to pursue cooking, working his way from washing dishes in Newark to working at Michelin-starred restaurants in Boston, Chicago, and New York. But when it was time to open a restaurant of his own, he decided to bring his talents home.
“This community and the school system and the people that are here… have given a lot to me to grow me, to raise me,” he said. “When it was my chance and choice to do something professionally, I wanted to do it in the town, in the area that I grew up in, so that I had a chance to give back.”
Plus, he added, “I can't be away from the mountains for too long.”
In 2012, Hennessey opened Stages, an intimate, chef’s table-style venue where he prepares custom tasting menus while diners look on. He followed it up this spring with Mediterranean restaurant Topolino a quarter-mile away. But his food’s connection to New Hampshire is much deeper than its physical location.
Henessey’s specialty is “progressive New England” cuisine, which he describes as working with the region’s wealth of local ingredients to be “constantly evolving, constantly learning and moving with the landscape, with the farms, with the ocean,” and the weather.
That sensibility is on full display at Stages, where his six- or nine-course tasting menus are deeply influenced by the local food systems. The dishes change on a dime in front of guests’ eyes, depending on what his suppliers bring in.
“They literally walk in the door with a bucket … we have no idea what they're going to bring,” he said. For him and his staff, it’s “like a kid in the candy store.”
One of the menu’s most foundational flavors comes from a red algae known as a “sea truffle,” which he discovered by foraging on the Seacoast. It’s been added to broths, sauces, even paired with chocolate. “It brings that beautiful oceanic salinity to our dishes,” he said.
He hopes his James Beard award can also spread the word to other chefs about New England’s food systems.
“I'm really hoping that it opens the door even more, so people want to come to this area,” Hennessey said. “Not just so they see that like, yes, you can be a successful restaurant in this market, but you can really tap into our incredible food sources.”
For now, the Granite State is already well on its way, according to Hennessey, with a crop of talented but often under-appreciated local chefs. He also credits a growing public interest in fine dining and food thanks to social media and TV. (Hennessey himself is also a three-time “Chopped” champion.)
“What we're seeing is this great emergence of, like, more want from the public, more want from the restaurants,” he said. “And I think you put those two things together and you create a new food scene.”
But no matter how big the spotlight on New Hampshire gets, Hennessey has long known the value of being from a small town.
“Huge shoutout to the entire community of Dover, New Hampshire,” he said in his acceptance speech. “I hope you are watching right now. We may be 34,000 people, but damn, we are big.”
