Chef at Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana restaurant is semifinalist for James Beard Award

Tony Conte also received the honor in 2018

January 24, 2024 7:15 p.m.

This story, originally published at 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2024, was updated at 4:03 p.m. to add that there is debate over whether the restaurant is in Gaithersburg or Darnestown and more information about the James Beard Awards.

Tony Conte, the chef and owner of Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana in Darnestown, was announced as a semifinalist for a 2024 James Beard Award on Wednesday.

“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.

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James Beard was declared the “Dean of American cookery” by the New York Times in 1954, and the foundation began giving out culinary awards in his honor in 1991, according to the foundation’s website.

The announcement led to a good-natured debate on social media over whether the restaurant is in Darnestown or Gaithersburg. While the restaurant’s website, the chef’s wife in a celebratory Facebook post and the foundation’s award page identify the location of the pizzeria as Darnestown, Gaithersburg City Councilmembers Neil Harris and Yamil Hernandez were quick to claim it as their own, pointing out that it is technically within Gaithersburg city limits when singing its praises.

“We’re proud to be the home of such a superlative dining establishment,” Harris said in an email to MoCo360.

Hernandez also expressed his pride and excitement about the restaurant.

“’I’m thrilled to hear that Tony Conte of Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana, a gem in Gaithersburg, has been recognized as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard Award. The pizza is delicious, and I’m super proud to have this great establishment within our City,” Hernandez said in an email to MoCo360.

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Conte is a semifinalist for the best chef category for the Mid-Atlantic, which includes Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Maryland; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; and Virginia.

He is one of 20 chefs listed as semifinalists for the award. Conte was chosen as a semifinalist in this same category in 2018, and that year, Jeremiah Langhorne of The Dabney in Washington, D.C. won the award.

The Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana, located at 12207 Darnestown Road in the Quince Orchard Marketplace, opened in 2015, and the hours are 5 p.m. until the dough runs out, according to the website.

“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,” David Hagedorn, Bethesda Magazine restaurant critic, said in a 2019 story. “That’s four-star eating in an 11-inch circle.”

Nominees for each award will be announced on April 3, and 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 website.

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This story will be updated with more information.

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