Best New Chefs?

April 6

I thought I was going to have a slightly insane morning. The Food + Wine Best New Chefs party is tonight. It's a good party, and until a few years ago it was very newsworthy in the food world because that magazine's career-making selection of 10 great up-and-coming chefs was announced at the party.

Then the magazine started releasing that list on the morning before the party, to fit into the news cycle better.

It was still a fun party, but, naturally, with fewer surprises.

So I was expecting an e-mail to land in my box this morning with an announcement of the new chefs, which I would feel obligated to write about as quickly as possible, both for nrn.com and for this blog. And, frankly, I have other things to do today, including meeting with two great up-and-coming chefs who are in town for some reason.

I set my alarm early in anticipation of getting an e-mail from Food + Wine, but it seems the magazine has gone back to their old, secretive ways.

Are my visitors today, Chad Robertson of Tartine in San Francisco and Rick Gresh of David Burke's Primehouse in Chicago, on the Food + Wine list.

I guess I'll have to wait until tonight to find out.

6:10 p.m update: Nope. Here’s the list, parsed out a couple hours early by Ben Leventhal over at Feast:
Roy Choi Kogi of BBQ truck in Los Angeles;
Matt Lightner of Castagna in Portland, Ore.; 
Clayton Miller of Trummer's on Main in Clifton, Va.; 
Missy Robbins of A Voce in New York City;
Jonathon Sawyer of The Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio; Alex Seidel of Fruition in Denver;
Mike Sheerin of Blackbird in Chicago;
John Shields of Town House in Chilhowie, Va.; Jason Stratton of Spinasse in Seattle, and
James Syhabout of Commis in Oakland, Calif.