Image by Kent Miller/James Beard FoundationImage by 20090506-award.jpg Mike Lata.

It seems the third time was the charm for FIG's Mike Lata: He's won the 2009 James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southeast.

Read more stories on this subject in our James Beard topic page.Congratulations, Mike.

He's a self-taught chef who is originally from the Northeast and moved to the Charleston dining scene in 1998.

You can congratulate him on Twitter, and learn a little more about the man on his profile page and in this video.