This year I watched the entire James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony from the ridiculously crowded and cramped press room, located in the bowels of Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in Manhattan. We all watched the video monitors as the awards unfolded, and when our personal favorites won, started yelling at the screen, the way longtime offtrack betting habitues yell when a race is on.
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Eat Me Daily, with a thoughtful analysis of and picks for the James Beard Book Awards....
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The James Beard Foundation just released the list of chef and restaurant semifinalists [PDF] for the nicknamed "Oscars of the food world." The nominees won't be announced until March. To give you a taste, we've listed the Outstanding Restaurant semifinalists after the jump; the PDF at the Beard site lists the rest—Outstanding Chef, Best New Restaurant, Rising Star Chef, etc....
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The so-called Oscars of the Food World will now accept nominations for blogs: "The Journalism Awards program has established a new James Beard Foundation Award for Blogs focusing on Food, Restaurants, Beverage, or Nutrition." It's not like web entities had been barred from entering, but its nice to see the foundation tip its hat explicitly to the impact blogs have had on the food world. Enter here, bloggers! [via Eater]...
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Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle on this year's James Beard awards: "What all this says to me is that as a dining nation we're growing up. Winning doesn't necessarily mean glitzy surroundings, high-profile names and chic locations; it's about how the people behind the stove translate their passion to diners."...
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I am just home from the
James Beard Awards and the various after-parties. Here are some not-so-random thoughts on the evening.
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All right, all right. Everyone has been asking me to make my predictions for the big national James Beard Awards (and the New York chef award) tonight at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York. So, I'm going to do it. There are a couple of things everyone should know about the Beard Awards. The electorate tends to tilt toward New York chefs and restaurants and figures with a high media profile. I make my predictions with that notion in mind....
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I heard Anthony Bourdain talking about race in the restaurant industry last year, and he said something about standing on the stage at the James Beard Awards and staring into a sea of white faces. I didn't realize how much that wasn't hyperbole until I saw Noah Kalina's crowd photos from the 2007 awards over at Eater; I couldn't find a single non-white face among the attendees in the first crowd close-up. Take a good long look: See how many people of color you can find, and let's compare notes after the jump....
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It is now noon, and though my stomach and fingers haven’t recovered from the food I consumed and the liveblogging I did on my Treo at the James Beard Awards last night, I have now had a few hours of sleep and a moment to reflect on what was overall a typically long and delicious night. Hannah Storm was an adequate host, lending a sort of interminably annoying perkiness and no real feeling for what she was up there for. I will say she is stunning and knows how to make love to a teleprompter. Overall there were no surprises and therefore no genuinely tense moments. Thomas Keller won for Restaurateur of the Year, which prompted fellow nominee Drew Nieporent...
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As I tap this out on my Treo phone, I'm in the audience at the James Beard Awards at New York City's Lincoln Center. I'll be liveblogging the awards tonight, keeping you up-to-the-minute on who's won what and giving you some additional information when I can—depending on how speedy I am with the tiny keyboard. 7:10 p.m. Rising Star Chef: David Chang is going to win. I know it. Chang just won. He thanked the team. Hannah Storm is too perky by half. She knows how to make love to a teleprompter. The first of the American Classics are coming up. 7:13 p.m. America's Classics: Primanti Brothers love the fries on sandwich, and they won. Can't argue with this choice....
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