March 24
The James Beard Foundation has announced its list of nominees for its annual awards, which people in the restaurant world take quite seriously. Awards are strange, though. The results are capricious, the meaning unclear. Nonetheless, I shall now take a shot at predicting the winners.
I did this last year and ended up getting seven out of 19 right, which is a failing grade except in baseball, when I would have batted 367.
I have made my predictions in boldface. They are my predictions, not my votes. I’m not saying that I would be happy about these results, but they are the people and restaurants I expect to win.
I’m only predicting in restaurant and chef categories. For a full list of nominees, visit jbfawards.com.
Here now, my predictions for the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards:
[March 26 update: Oops, the Beard Foundation forgot that Gary Danko won the outstanding service award in 2006, so they took that restaurant off the list and replaced it with La Grenouille in New York. Also, I’ve been asked why I picked who I picked and if I’m crazy, so I have added reasons for my predictions]:
Best new restaurant:
Anthos in New York
Central Michel Richard in Washington, D.C.
Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas
Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles
Osteria in Philadelphia
reason: I think the star effect of Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton will put it over the top
“Rising Star Chef” (aged 30 years or younger):
Nate Appleman of A 16 in San Francisco
Sean Brock of McCrady’s in Charleston, S.C.
Gavin Kaysen of Café Boulud in New York
Johnny Monis of Komi in Washington, D.C.
Matt Molina of Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles
Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon in Portland, Ore.
reason: see above
Outstanding chef:
Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago
José Andres of Minibar in Washington, D.C.
Dan Barber of Blue Hill in New York
Suzanne Goin of Lucques in Los Angeles
Frank Stitt of Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, Ala.
reason: All of these chefs are very highly regarded, but Grant has been battling cancer. To call his victory a sympathy vote would make it sound like he’s not deserving, so let’s call it a hero vote.
Outstanding restaurant (these tend to go to old, well-established restaurants with a lot of history):
Boulevard in San Francisco
The Slanted Door in San Francisco
Gramercy Tavern in New York
Jean Georges in New York
Campanile in Los Angeles
reason: This one is always tricky, because more than any of the other awards it seems to be based on sentiment and a sense of the nominee’s place in the restaurant firmament. But I’ve never heard an unkind word said about Gramercy Tavern.
Outstanding pastry chef:
Gina DePalma of Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca in New York
Pichet Ong of P*ONG in New York
Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco
Mindy Segal of HotChocolate in Chicago
Nicole Plue of Redd in Yountville, Calif.
reason: combination of name recognition of Gina herself and Batali star power
Outstanding wine service:
Aureole in Las Vegas
Picasso in Las Vegas
Bin 36 in Chicago
Eleven Madison Park in New York
Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn.
reason: Blackberry Farm gets nominated often enough in enough different categories (it was nominated for both best chef and best service last year). It just feels like this is its year.
Outstanding restaurateur:
Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali in New York
Tom Douglas in Seattle
Richard Melman in Chicago
Wolfgang Puck in Los Angeles
Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York
Reason: Jean-Georges' restaurants are the most high-end in this group, for the most part, and I think Beard judges still have a weakness for that.
Outstanding wine and spirits professional:
Dale DeGroff of Beverage Alcohol Resource in New York
Merry Edwards of Merry Edwards Wines in Sebastopol, Calif.
David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyards in McMinnville, Ore.
Bobby Stuckey of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colo.
Terry Theise of Terry Theise Estate Selections in Silver Spring, Md.
Reason: Frasca’s hot.
Outstanding service:
Canlis in Seattle
La Grenouille in New York
Spiaggia in Chicago
Vetri in Philadelphia
Terra in St. Helena, Calif.
Reason: Canlis has a reputation for being classic and likeable that I think will appeal to judges.
My picks for the regional awards, except for New York which is the market I live in and thus the one I know best, are based purely on gut reaction having to do with name recognition and general reputation. In the case of New York, people in the food world here can’t help themselves — if there’s an award, they’ll give it to David Chang.
Pacific (California and Hawaii):
Douglas Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg, Calif.
David Kinch of Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif.
David Myers of Sona in Los Angeles
Craig Stoll of Delfina in San Francisco
Michael Tusk of Quince in San Francisco.
Mid-Atlantic (including Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia):
Cathal Armstong of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Va.
Jose Garces of Amada in Philadelphia
Maricel Presilla of Cucharamama in Hoboken, N.J.
Cindy Wolf of Charleston in Baltimore
Eric Ziebold of CityZen in Washington, D.C.
Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin):
Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery in Minneapolis
Colby Garrelts of Bluestem in Kansas City
Tim McKee of La Belle Vie in Minneapolis
Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis
Adam Siegal of Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro in Milwaukee
Great Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio):
Graham Elliot Bowles of Avenues in Chicago
Carrie Nahabedian of Naha in Chicago
Bruce Sherman of North Pond in Chicago
Michael Symon of Lola in Cleveland
Alex Young of Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich.
New York City:
Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern
Terrance Brennan of Picholine
David Chang of the Momofuku restaurants
Wylie Dufresne of WD-50
Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern.
Northeast (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York excluding New York City, Rhode Island and Vermont):
Patrick Connolly of Radius in Boston
Rob Evans of Hugo’s in Portland, Maine
Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier of Arrows in Ogunquit, Maine
Michael Leviton of Lumière in West Newton, Mass.
Marc Orfaly of Pigalle in Boston.
Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming):
Scott Dolich of Park Kitchen in Portland, Ore.
Maria Hines of Tilth in Seattle
Holly Smith of Café Juanita in Kirkland, Wash.
Ethan Stowell of Union in Seattle
Jason Wilson of Crush in Seattle
Southeast (Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia):
Hugh Acheson of Five and Ten in Athens, Ga.
Arnaud Berthelier of The Dining Room at The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead in Atlanta
Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta
Mike Lata of Fig in Charleston, S.C.
Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill in Charleston, S.C.
Southwest (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah):
Saipin Chutima of Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas
Sharon Hage of York Street in Dallas
Ryan Hardy of Montagna in Aspen, Colo.
Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colo.
Andrew Weissman of Restaurant La Rêve in San Antonio, Texas.
South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi):
Zach Bell of Café Boulud in Palm Beach, Fla.
Michelle Bernstein of Michy’s in Miami
John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, Miss.
Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Ala.
Douglas Rodriguez of Ola in Miami.
Showing posts with label James Beard Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Beard Awards. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Beard ’07
May 8
“When is it going to be over?”
“Another 45 minutes.”
“But you said that like 20 minutes ago.”
“I know, I’m sorry. You know what? It’s going to be a long time before it’s over. I honestly can’t say how long.”
Oh wait, that was a conversation I had with my seven-year-old nephew, Harrison Thorn, last weekend at the Bat Mitzvah of cousin Yael Kornfeld (it was long, but really quite excellent; her speech made me cry).
But I could have had it at this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards.
Both the Bat Mitzvah and the awards were just a bit longer than three hours — an hour shorter than last year’s Beard Awards, which is a good start.
This was my ninth year covering the awards and I think I’ve had about enough.
The venue was moved this year from the Marriott Marquis to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.
Members of the press were given actual seats instead of herded into a roped off section in the back as used to be the case. But they were all up in tier two. I went up to my seat. It was seat #13 in box #13, but I decided not to take that personally.
The ceremony started at 6:50, 20 minutes late, and I was all alone in my box, although I was soon joined by Ben Leventhal.
“May I crash your box?” he asked, which sounds dirty but it’s not. He sneaked a couple of photos and made notes with some sort of electronic device while the ceremony got underway with a speech from Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro and a video celebrating the Beard Foundation, which is 20 years old.
Much of the video was shot during a recent dinner by Denver-based chef Troy Guard, which I attended (Beard Award attendees who paid attention might have noticed my profile in the background for about a second).
I stayed in my obstructed-view seat while David Chang was named Rising Star chef, and then when the year’s first America’s Classics award was being presented Laren Spirer from Gothamist — who was in the next box over — and I slipped down to the press room, where I spent the rest of the ceremony.
There, for the first time in my life, I felt the need to use the word “scrum.”
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad, as long as you didn’t want to hear the acceptance speeches (most of which were appropriately short and innocuous anyway) or see any of the videos, which they seemed uninterested in showing to the only people even remotely likely to write about them.
It was a very polite and congenial scrum, and the sausages and cheese provided by a high-end restaurant supplier were terrific, although I wonder if it’s really a good idea at the fine-dining world’s biggest shmoozefest to serve the biggest chatterboxes — the media — things that are going to have such a deleterious affect on their breath.
Sometimes you have to cover events just to cover them, and that’s what I do at the Beard Awards. It’s unlikely that anything will happen that you can’t read about in a press release, but you never know. And you have to gauge the mood of the crowd, listen to the chatter afterwards, reconnect with people. It might be tedious, but it’s also important.
This year the bloggers were in attendance in fuller force, so that was interesting, and I got to catch up with my friend Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appétit, whom I never see because he doesn’t go out anymore (he said as much: “I don’t go out anymore,” he said).
I also got to hang with James Oliver Cury, formerly of Time Out New York and now of Epicurious, which is always a treat (he loves loves loves his new job, by the way).
And the award ceremony does come to an end eventually. It has to.
It is followed by a reception.
I whipped out my camera for the picture page that we would likely run in Nation’s Restaurant News and mostly left the food to the paying guests, although I did gratefully accept the foie gras handed to me by former Aureole chef Dante Bocuzzi, who’s in the process of setting up his own restaurant in Cleveland. And when Thomas Keller hands you one of his salmon cornets you can’t leave him hanging. It would be rude. Besides, I wanted to take a picture of him with his chef at French Laundry, Corey Lee.
I chatted with the folks at Gilt, including sommelier Jason Ferris who gushed about how great it was working with chef Christopher Lee — how chefs and sommeliers so often say that they click and get along famously, but that it’s rarely true.
He didn’t say he was glad to see former chef Paul Liebrandt gone, perhaps because I wasn’t indelicate enough to ask.
David Carmichael, Gilt’s new pastry chef, similarly raved about the Palace Hotel’s facilities, so of course I ate his berry sorbet, and so it would have been improper not to eat Chris Lee’s Kobe beef.
I reminded Robert and Mimi Del Grande about the night we dined together some years ago at the Bon Appétit Food & Entertaining awards (it was surreal: there in Daniel’s private dining room were the Del Grande’s, Julia Child, Alice Waters, Jacques and Claudine Pépin, Charlie Trotter, David Bouley, Drew Nieporent — who actually spoke to Bouley for the first time in 16 years — Wolfgang Puck, Anna Wintour to introduce Jeffrey Steingarten, Dean Fearing, other really important food luminaries … and me).
Then it was time for the afterparties, so I stopped by the Parker Meridien, where the only person I knew was a freelance photographer for the Beard Foundation. So I rehydrated with some sparkling water, sipped a glass of wine and then wandered off to Hawaiian Tropic Zone, where I met Sam Hazen of Tao and became reacquainted with his co-executive chef, John Villa, whom you might remember from Pico, Patroon, or a photo spread in Playgirl in which he was called something like the world’s sexiest chef.
David Burke was hosting the party, and I congratulated him on the $88 fried rice at davidburke & donatella, which apparently is selling like hotcakes, or maybe like $4 fried rice.
He immediately leapt to the dish’s defense, although I hadn’t attacked it. Hey, if people want to buy an $88 fried rice, sell it to them.
Then I settled into a conversation with Lee Jones and David Varley. Lee is the marketing guy at Chef’s Garden, which supplies many of the fine dining restaurants in the eastern half of the United States (and apparently Las Vegas) with super-expensive micro greens and baby vegetables. He was in his trademark outfit (literally, he trademarked it) of white dress shirt, red bow tie and denim overalls.
David’s the chef de cuisine of restaurant Bradley Ogden in Las Vegas.
Here’s Lee with Celina Tio, who won the award for best chef in the Midwest.
Lee, David and I headed down to Olives, where the last time I went to a Beard Award afterparty it was awful — third-tier publicists and other hangers on — but it had its groove back this year, and it was a lot of fun. I introduced myself to Jean-Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini, because I’d never met him and I thought it was high time I did.
I hate doing that — introducing yourself to someone at a party as if they’re going to remember you the next day.
But he was nice about it and I kept it brief and let him continue the conversation he was having with the pretty woman. I think she might have been Todd English’s girlfriend, but that’s none of my business.
But who won besides David Chang and Celina Tio, you ask?
By the way, this is David Chang, whom I introduced to Ivy Stark, the executive chef of Amalia in New York, so I could take a picture of them together.
One more thing: You might remember that I made some predictions about who would win the Beard Awards. I got seven right, 12 wrong, which, okay, is a failing grade, but it's nearly twice as good as a monkey throwing darts at random would do.
“When is it going to be over?”
“Another 45 minutes.”
“But you said that like 20 minutes ago.”
“I know, I’m sorry. You know what? It’s going to be a long time before it’s over. I honestly can’t say how long.”
Oh wait, that was a conversation I had with my seven-year-old nephew, Harrison Thorn, last weekend at the Bat Mitzvah of cousin Yael Kornfeld (it was long, but really quite excellent; her speech made me cry).
But I could have had it at this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards.
Both the Bat Mitzvah and the awards were just a bit longer than three hours — an hour shorter than last year’s Beard Awards, which is a good start.
This was my ninth year covering the awards and I think I’ve had about enough.
The venue was moved this year from the Marriott Marquis to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.
Members of the press were given actual seats instead of herded into a roped off section in the back as used to be the case. But they were all up in tier two. I went up to my seat. It was seat #13 in box #13, but I decided not to take that personally.
The ceremony started at 6:50, 20 minutes late, and I was all alone in my box, although I was soon joined by Ben Leventhal.
“May I crash your box?” he asked, which sounds dirty but it’s not. He sneaked a couple of photos and made notes with some sort of electronic device while the ceremony got underway with a speech from Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro and a video celebrating the Beard Foundation, which is 20 years old.
Much of the video was shot during a recent dinner by Denver-based chef Troy Guard, which I attended (Beard Award attendees who paid attention might have noticed my profile in the background for about a second).
I stayed in my obstructed-view seat while David Chang was named Rising Star chef, and then when the year’s first America’s Classics award was being presented Laren Spirer from Gothamist — who was in the next box over — and I slipped down to the press room, where I spent the rest of the ceremony.
There, for the first time in my life, I felt the need to use the word “scrum.”
Honestly, it wasn’t that bad, as long as you didn’t want to hear the acceptance speeches (most of which were appropriately short and innocuous anyway) or see any of the videos, which they seemed uninterested in showing to the only people even remotely likely to write about them.
It was a very polite and congenial scrum, and the sausages and cheese provided by a high-end restaurant supplier were terrific, although I wonder if it’s really a good idea at the fine-dining world’s biggest shmoozefest to serve the biggest chatterboxes — the media — things that are going to have such a deleterious affect on their breath.
Sometimes you have to cover events just to cover them, and that’s what I do at the Beard Awards. It’s unlikely that anything will happen that you can’t read about in a press release, but you never know. And you have to gauge the mood of the crowd, listen to the chatter afterwards, reconnect with people. It might be tedious, but it’s also important.
This year the bloggers were in attendance in fuller force, so that was interesting, and I got to catch up with my friend Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appétit, whom I never see because he doesn’t go out anymore (he said as much: “I don’t go out anymore,” he said).
I also got to hang with James Oliver Cury, formerly of Time Out New York and now of Epicurious, which is always a treat (he loves loves loves his new job, by the way).
And the award ceremony does come to an end eventually. It has to.
It is followed by a reception.
I whipped out my camera for the picture page that we would likely run in Nation’s Restaurant News and mostly left the food to the paying guests, although I did gratefully accept the foie gras handed to me by former Aureole chef Dante Bocuzzi, who’s in the process of setting up his own restaurant in Cleveland. And when Thomas Keller hands you one of his salmon cornets you can’t leave him hanging. It would be rude. Besides, I wanted to take a picture of him with his chef at French Laundry, Corey Lee.
I chatted with the folks at Gilt, including sommelier Jason Ferris who gushed about how great it was working with chef Christopher Lee — how chefs and sommeliers so often say that they click and get along famously, but that it’s rarely true.
He didn’t say he was glad to see former chef Paul Liebrandt gone, perhaps because I wasn’t indelicate enough to ask.
David Carmichael, Gilt’s new pastry chef, similarly raved about the Palace Hotel’s facilities, so of course I ate his berry sorbet, and so it would have been improper not to eat Chris Lee’s Kobe beef.
I reminded Robert and Mimi Del Grande about the night we dined together some years ago at the Bon Appétit Food & Entertaining awards (it was surreal: there in Daniel’s private dining room were the Del Grande’s, Julia Child, Alice Waters, Jacques and Claudine Pépin, Charlie Trotter, David Bouley, Drew Nieporent — who actually spoke to Bouley for the first time in 16 years — Wolfgang Puck, Anna Wintour to introduce Jeffrey Steingarten, Dean Fearing, other really important food luminaries … and me).
Then it was time for the afterparties, so I stopped by the Parker Meridien, where the only person I knew was a freelance photographer for the Beard Foundation. So I rehydrated with some sparkling water, sipped a glass of wine and then wandered off to Hawaiian Tropic Zone, where I met Sam Hazen of Tao and became reacquainted with his co-executive chef, John Villa, whom you might remember from Pico, Patroon, or a photo spread in Playgirl in which he was called something like the world’s sexiest chef.
David Burke was hosting the party, and I congratulated him on the $88 fried rice at davidburke & donatella, which apparently is selling like hotcakes, or maybe like $4 fried rice.
He immediately leapt to the dish’s defense, although I hadn’t attacked it. Hey, if people want to buy an $88 fried rice, sell it to them.
Then I settled into a conversation with Lee Jones and David Varley. Lee is the marketing guy at Chef’s Garden, which supplies many of the fine dining restaurants in the eastern half of the United States (and apparently Las Vegas) with super-expensive micro greens and baby vegetables. He was in his trademark outfit (literally, he trademarked it) of white dress shirt, red bow tie and denim overalls.
David’s the chef de cuisine of restaurant Bradley Ogden in Las Vegas.
Here’s Lee with Celina Tio, who won the award for best chef in the Midwest.
Lee, David and I headed down to Olives, where the last time I went to a Beard Award afterparty it was awful — third-tier publicists and other hangers on — but it had its groove back this year, and it was a lot of fun. I introduced myself to Jean-Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini, because I’d never met him and I thought it was high time I did.
I hate doing that — introducing yourself to someone at a party as if they’re going to remember you the next day.
But he was nice about it and I kept it brief and let him continue the conversation he was having with the pretty woman. I think she might have been Todd English’s girlfriend, but that’s none of my business.
But who won besides David Chang and Celina Tio, you ask?
By the way, this is David Chang, whom I introduced to Ivy Stark, the executive chef of Amalia in New York, so I could take a picture of them together.
One more thing: You might remember that I made some predictions about who would win the Beard Awards. I got seven right, 12 wrong, which, okay, is a failing grade, but it's nearly twice as good as a monkey throwing darts at random would do.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard beard...
April 20
Great news about the Beard Awards ceremony this year! If you attended the gala last year, you’ll recall that the ceremony went on pretty much forever. Well, I was talking to Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro last night who said they’ve worked to shorten the program.
Last year, quite a few winners didn’t show up, but their representatives nonetheless stood at the podium and gave acceptance speeches on their behalf. Susan said that won’t be happening this year. Also, the broadcast awards will be presented on the night before the big gala at what were until this year called the James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, but will now be called the Media Awards.
Also, the reception will be spread out on two floors instead of one.
Some noise has been made here in cyberspace about the fact that since the awards will be in Avery Fisher Hall this year rather than at the Marriott Marquis, the chefs serving up food during the reception will not be able to use open flames, just induction burners. Anthony Bourdain used this — and the fact that Avery Fisher Hall does not have anything like the excellent kitchen facilties of the Marriott Marquis where the chefs could prepare their food — as an illustration of the Beard Foundation’s lack of knowledge of, or even interest in, the way restaurants and food actually function.
Okay, but this is, after all, an award ceremony followed by a reception. Receptions are never places where chefs can show their best work. They’re constrained by space, the fact that they can only serve one or two dishes, and, usually, by hungry, unruly reception attendees (nowhere is this more true than at the Beard Awards, where amateur foodies spend hundreds of dollars to attend the event and then become quite aggressive in trying to sample all of the food; I tend not to eat much there).
Besides, from what I’ve seen, chefs tend to thrive when presented with challenges. Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto in San Francisco claims to have an adrenalin addiction, and that strikes a chord with many chefs I mention it to. Chefs thrive on adversity, and Tony Bourdain knows that. When I interviewed him back in March 2000, shortly before his book Kitchen Confidential was published, he called professional cooking an endurance sport.
Just for fun, here’s an excerpt of that interview:
“[Me:] I’ve often thought that writing and cooking are opposite art forms, in that cooking is the only art that utilizes all five senses and writing is really not dependent on any sense.
“[Bourdain:] At a certain level that is absolutely true. If you’re Nabokov or James Joyce, I would say that’s definitely true. You live the life of the mind entirely and produce brilliant works that set the world on fire. That’s not me. For me they’re very similar. They’re both endurance sports. I do them both for love, and they’re both about who’s standing at the end of the day. I hear a lot of guys: “I always wanted to write a book, got some great ideas.” But it’s all about sitting down and cranking it out every day.”
Here’s some more, starting with Bourdain:
“Why I got into the business was for the pleasures of the flesh, initially. I got into it because of the lifestyle, because cooks were pirates: They got to do whatever the hell they wanted to, and chefs were pirate kings.
“[Me:] What was piratelike about life in the kitchen in the ’70s?
“[Bourdain:] What we did we did behind closed doors, and we ruled absolutely. Everyone had a personal style to the way they dressed — ripped blue jeans, smoking in the kitchen, headbands, giant doorknocker earrings, all sorts of ’70s leftover type of jewelry, tattoos. The kitchen had its own slang, its own perverse world view of everything outside.
“We lived with a sort of friendly contempt for everybody else. Everybody in the kitchens had idiosyncrasies, whether they stole everything in sight, drank like crazy, did lots of drugs, gambled all night, were screwing their way through the floor staff, the customers, everybody in sight. And we were paid relatively well, spending no money on food and surrounded by criminal masterminds. These were attractive qualities in 1973, ’74 and even up to the early ’80s.
“Also it was a rigid hierarchy. So we lived chaotic, messy lives, but we were still able to survive in an extremely rigid, Byzantine, demanding world, where it’s put up or shut-up: If you can’t cook, you can’t cook. They’ll forgive you your idiosyncrasies if you can show up on time and do your job. If you can’t, you’re out. ”
I think they’ll be able to handle induction burners.
Great news about the Beard Awards ceremony this year! If you attended the gala last year, you’ll recall that the ceremony went on pretty much forever. Well, I was talking to Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro last night who said they’ve worked to shorten the program.
Last year, quite a few winners didn’t show up, but their representatives nonetheless stood at the podium and gave acceptance speeches on their behalf. Susan said that won’t be happening this year. Also, the broadcast awards will be presented on the night before the big gala at what were until this year called the James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, but will now be called the Media Awards.
Also, the reception will be spread out on two floors instead of one.
Some noise has been made here in cyberspace about the fact that since the awards will be in Avery Fisher Hall this year rather than at the Marriott Marquis, the chefs serving up food during the reception will not be able to use open flames, just induction burners. Anthony Bourdain used this — and the fact that Avery Fisher Hall does not have anything like the excellent kitchen facilties of the Marriott Marquis where the chefs could prepare their food — as an illustration of the Beard Foundation’s lack of knowledge of, or even interest in, the way restaurants and food actually function.
Okay, but this is, after all, an award ceremony followed by a reception. Receptions are never places where chefs can show their best work. They’re constrained by space, the fact that they can only serve one or two dishes, and, usually, by hungry, unruly reception attendees (nowhere is this more true than at the Beard Awards, where amateur foodies spend hundreds of dollars to attend the event and then become quite aggressive in trying to sample all of the food; I tend not to eat much there).
Besides, from what I’ve seen, chefs tend to thrive when presented with challenges. Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto in San Francisco claims to have an adrenalin addiction, and that strikes a chord with many chefs I mention it to. Chefs thrive on adversity, and Tony Bourdain knows that. When I interviewed him back in March 2000, shortly before his book Kitchen Confidential was published, he called professional cooking an endurance sport.
Just for fun, here’s an excerpt of that interview:
“[Me:] I’ve often thought that writing and cooking are opposite art forms, in that cooking is the only art that utilizes all five senses and writing is really not dependent on any sense.
“[Bourdain:] At a certain level that is absolutely true. If you’re Nabokov or James Joyce, I would say that’s definitely true. You live the life of the mind entirely and produce brilliant works that set the world on fire. That’s not me. For me they’re very similar. They’re both endurance sports. I do them both for love, and they’re both about who’s standing at the end of the day. I hear a lot of guys: “I always wanted to write a book, got some great ideas.” But it’s all about sitting down and cranking it out every day.”
Here’s some more, starting with Bourdain:
“Why I got into the business was for the pleasures of the flesh, initially. I got into it because of the lifestyle, because cooks were pirates: They got to do whatever the hell they wanted to, and chefs were pirate kings.
“[Me:] What was piratelike about life in the kitchen in the ’70s?
“[Bourdain:] What we did we did behind closed doors, and we ruled absolutely. Everyone had a personal style to the way they dressed — ripped blue jeans, smoking in the kitchen, headbands, giant doorknocker earrings, all sorts of ’70s leftover type of jewelry, tattoos. The kitchen had its own slang, its own perverse world view of everything outside.
“We lived with a sort of friendly contempt for everybody else. Everybody in the kitchens had idiosyncrasies, whether they stole everything in sight, drank like crazy, did lots of drugs, gambled all night, were screwing their way through the floor staff, the customers, everybody in sight. And we were paid relatively well, spending no money on food and surrounded by criminal masterminds. These were attractive qualities in 1973, ’74 and even up to the early ’80s.
“Also it was a rigid hierarchy. So we lived chaotic, messy lives, but we were still able to survive in an extremely rigid, Byzantine, demanding world, where it’s put up or shut-up: If you can’t cook, you can’t cook. They’ll forgive you your idiosyncrasies if you can show up on time and do your job. If you can’t, you’re out. ”
I think they’ll be able to handle induction burners.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Beard Handicapping
March 21
And now a break on my reporting from Japan to attend to local matters:
The Beard Awards are going to be especially long this year. Two new geographical categories have been named: The former Midwest region has been divided into the Midwest and the Great Lakes, and the former Southeast has been split into the Southeast and the South.
Those awards are all very nice, but the only real career maker is Rising Star Chef, which is given to someone 30 years old or younger. The award for best new restaurant is always one to watch for news value.
Awards for outstanding chef, pastry chef and restaurant are given to big names that don't really need the extra attention.
The regional awards tend to involve the same nominees year after year who already enjoy fame in their respective areas. The winner is a toss-up. That will be a little different this year, since some of the regions have been reconfigured.
I talked to Michael Bauer about that. He’s the restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and also the chair of the Beard Foundation’s restaurant committee. He said they actually consulted with a cultural demographer who looked at the regions as cultural entities. The committee then regrouped "the ones that most likely went together culturally.” That’s why Hawaii was moved from the Pacific Northwest to California, so-to-speak. It will make it harder for Hawaiian restaurants to get nominated, but culturally it makes more sense.
But the biggest changes were in the Midwest and Southeast.
“The real reason for that, which I think kind of showed up in the nominations, is that those areas have grown, foodwise, and so they can sustain their own awards,” Bauer said.
Besides, he added, "what the awards do in an ideal world is not only recognise but also build and foster an environment for better cooking." Recognizing Midwesterners outside of Chicago and Southerners outside of Atlanta and Charleston should help.
In an attempt to keep the ceremony from getting too much longer, they have cut down the America’s Classics awards from eight to six.
Although the Beard Awards tend not to be full of surprises, nominations and awards are nice to get, nonetheless, so congratulations all around to the nominees.
Just for fun, I shall predict the winners. These are not my choices, mind you — they are who I expect to win.
I’m listing all of the nominees below (if you are new to the awards, don’t be surprised by the New York bias; it’s a regular thing for the Beard Foundation). My predictions have an X by them.
Outstanding restaurateur
X Thomas Keller
Keith McNally
Richard Melman
Drew Nieporent
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Outstanding Chef
X Tom Colicchio
Lee Hefter
Jean Joho
Paul Kahan
Michel Richard
Outstanding Restaurant
X Boulevard, San Francisco
Frontera Grill, Chicago
Magnolia Grill, Durham, N.C.
Picholine, NYC
Spiaggia, Chicago
Best new restaurant
A Voce, NYC
Cochon, New Orleans
Cut, Beverly Hills
Restaurant Guy Savoy, Las Vegas
X L 'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, NYC
Momofuku Ssäm Bar, NYC
Rising Star chef
Nate Appleman, A16, San Francisco
Graham Elliot Bowles, Avenues at The Peninsula Hotel, Chicago
David Chang, Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC
Patrick Connelly, Radius, Boston
X Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park, NYC
Outstanding pastry chef
Will Goldfarb, Room 4 Dessert, NYC
Michael Laiskonis, Le Bernardin, NYC
Leslie Mackie, Macrina Bakery & Café, Seattle
Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson, Tartine Bakery, San Francisco
X Mindy Segal, HotChocolate, Chicago
Outstanding Wine Service
Bin 36, Chicago
i Trulli, NYC
Mary Elanie’s at The Phoenician, Scottsdale
Michel Richard Citronelle, DC
X Picasso, Las Vegas
outstanding wine and spirits professional award
Dale DeGroff
Paul Draper
Dan Duckhorn
Terry Theise
X Helen Turley
Outstanding service
Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tenn.
Canlis, Seattle
La Grenouille, NYC
Terra, St. Helena, Calif.
X Tru, Chicago
The regional awards:
Pacific (California/Hawaii)
Traci Des Jardins, Jardiniére, SF
Douglas Keane, Cyrus, Healdsburg, Calif.
Rolan Passot, La Folie, SF
Craig Stoll, Delfina, SF
X Michael Tusk, Quince, SF
Mid-atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)
X Cathal Armstrong
Restaurant Eve, Old Town Alexandria, Va.
RJ Cooper, Vidalia, D.C.
Jose Garces, Amada, Philadelphia
Maricel Presilla, Cucharamama, Hoboken
Frank Ruta, Palena, DC
Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)
Colby Garrelts, Bluestem, Kansas City
X Tim McKee, La Belle Vie, Minneapolis
Alex Roberts, Restaurant Alma, Minneapolis
Adam Siegel, Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro, Milwaukee
Celina Tio, The American Restaurant, Kansas City
Great lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)
X Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago
Carrie Nahabedian, Naha, Chicago
Bruce Sherman, North Pond, Chicago
Michael Symon, Lola, Cleveland
Alex Young, Zingerman 's Roadhouse, Ann Arbor, Mich.
New York City
Terrance Brennan, Picholine
Floyd Cardoz, Tabla
Wylie Dufresne, WD-50
Gabriel Kreuther, The Modern
X David Waltuck, Chanterelle
Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY STATE, RI, VT)
Rob Evans, Hugo 's, Portland
Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier, Arrows, Ogunquit, Maine
Michael Leviton, Lumière, West Newton, Mass.
X Frank McClelland, L’Espalier, Boston
Marc Orfaly, Pigalle, Boston
Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY)
Scott Dolich, Park Kitchen, Portland
Maria Hines, Tilth, Seattle
X Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez, The Harvest Vine, Seattle
Holly Smith, Café Juanita, Kirkland, Wash.
John Sundstrom, Lark, Seattle
Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)
Hugh Acheson, Five & Ten, Athens, Ga.
X Arnaud Berthelier, The Dining Room in the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, Atlanta
John Fleer, Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tenn.
Mike Lata, Fig, Charleston
Scott Peacock, Watershed, Decatur, Ga.
Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, NV, OK, TX, UT)
David Bull, Driskill Grill, Austin, Texas
Nobuo Fukuda, Sea Saw, Scottsdale, Ariz.
X Sharon Hage, York Street, Dallas
Monica Pope, Tafia, Houston
Andrew Weisman, Restaurant Le Rêve, San Antonio
South (AL. AR, FL, LA, MS)
Michelle Bernstein, Michy 's, Miami
John Currence, City Grocery, Oxford, Miss.
Jonathan Eismann, Pacific Time, Miami Beach
Chris Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club, Birmingham, Ala.
X Donald Link, Herbsaint, New Orleans
I’m not going to predict the design and graphics awards, but here they are, in case you’re curious:
Outstanding Restaurant Design
Lewis. Tsurumaki. Lewis (LTD) Architects
Designers: Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis, New York City
For Xing Restaurant
Rockwell Group
Designers: David Rockwell, Shawn Sullivan, Nils Guldager
New York City
For Nobu Fifty Seven
Tadao Ando Architects and Associates
Designers: Tadao Ando, Stephanie Goto, Masataka Yano
New York City
For Morimoto
Outstanding Restaurant Graphics
Baron and Baron
Designers: Fabien Baron, Takashi Hiratsuka
New York City
For Buddakan
Base Design
New York City
For Stand
Memo Productions
Designers: Douglas Riccardi, Lisa Eaton
New York City
For Pizzeria Mozza (in LA)
And now a break on my reporting from Japan to attend to local matters:
The Beard Awards are going to be especially long this year. Two new geographical categories have been named: The former Midwest region has been divided into the Midwest and the Great Lakes, and the former Southeast has been split into the Southeast and the South.
Those awards are all very nice, but the only real career maker is Rising Star Chef, which is given to someone 30 years old or younger. The award for best new restaurant is always one to watch for news value.
Awards for outstanding chef, pastry chef and restaurant are given to big names that don't really need the extra attention.
The regional awards tend to involve the same nominees year after year who already enjoy fame in their respective areas. The winner is a toss-up. That will be a little different this year, since some of the regions have been reconfigured.
I talked to Michael Bauer about that. He’s the restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and also the chair of the Beard Foundation’s restaurant committee. He said they actually consulted with a cultural demographer who looked at the regions as cultural entities. The committee then regrouped "the ones that most likely went together culturally.” That’s why Hawaii was moved from the Pacific Northwest to California, so-to-speak. It will make it harder for Hawaiian restaurants to get nominated, but culturally it makes more sense.
But the biggest changes were in the Midwest and Southeast.
“The real reason for that, which I think kind of showed up in the nominations, is that those areas have grown, foodwise, and so they can sustain their own awards,” Bauer said.
Besides, he added, "what the awards do in an ideal world is not only recognise but also build and foster an environment for better cooking." Recognizing Midwesterners outside of Chicago and Southerners outside of Atlanta and Charleston should help.
In an attempt to keep the ceremony from getting too much longer, they have cut down the America’s Classics awards from eight to six.
Although the Beard Awards tend not to be full of surprises, nominations and awards are nice to get, nonetheless, so congratulations all around to the nominees.
Just for fun, I shall predict the winners. These are not my choices, mind you — they are who I expect to win.
I’m listing all of the nominees below (if you are new to the awards, don’t be surprised by the New York bias; it’s a regular thing for the Beard Foundation). My predictions have an X by them.
Outstanding restaurateur
X Thomas Keller
Keith McNally
Richard Melman
Drew Nieporent
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Outstanding Chef
X Tom Colicchio
Lee Hefter
Jean Joho
Paul Kahan
Michel Richard
Outstanding Restaurant
X Boulevard, San Francisco
Frontera Grill, Chicago
Magnolia Grill, Durham, N.C.
Picholine, NYC
Spiaggia, Chicago
Best new restaurant
A Voce, NYC
Cochon, New Orleans
Cut, Beverly Hills
Restaurant Guy Savoy, Las Vegas
X L 'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, NYC
Momofuku Ssäm Bar, NYC
Rising Star chef
Nate Appleman, A16, San Francisco
Graham Elliot Bowles, Avenues at The Peninsula Hotel, Chicago
David Chang, Momofuku Noodle Bar, NYC
Patrick Connelly, Radius, Boston
X Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park, NYC
Outstanding pastry chef
Will Goldfarb, Room 4 Dessert, NYC
Michael Laiskonis, Le Bernardin, NYC
Leslie Mackie, Macrina Bakery & Café, Seattle
Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson, Tartine Bakery, San Francisco
X Mindy Segal, HotChocolate, Chicago
Outstanding Wine Service
Bin 36, Chicago
i Trulli, NYC
Mary Elanie’s at The Phoenician, Scottsdale
Michel Richard Citronelle, DC
X Picasso, Las Vegas
outstanding wine and spirits professional award
Dale DeGroff
Paul Draper
Dan Duckhorn
Terry Theise
X Helen Turley
Outstanding service
Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tenn.
Canlis, Seattle
La Grenouille, NYC
Terra, St. Helena, Calif.
X Tru, Chicago
The regional awards:
Pacific (California/Hawaii)
Traci Des Jardins, Jardiniére, SF
Douglas Keane, Cyrus, Healdsburg, Calif.
Rolan Passot, La Folie, SF
Craig Stoll, Delfina, SF
X Michael Tusk, Quince, SF
Mid-atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)
X Cathal Armstrong
Restaurant Eve, Old Town Alexandria, Va.
RJ Cooper, Vidalia, D.C.
Jose Garces, Amada, Philadelphia
Maricel Presilla, Cucharamama, Hoboken
Frank Ruta, Palena, DC
Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)
Colby Garrelts, Bluestem, Kansas City
X Tim McKee, La Belle Vie, Minneapolis
Alex Roberts, Restaurant Alma, Minneapolis
Adam Siegel, Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro, Milwaukee
Celina Tio, The American Restaurant, Kansas City
Great lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)
X Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago
Carrie Nahabedian, Naha, Chicago
Bruce Sherman, North Pond, Chicago
Michael Symon, Lola, Cleveland
Alex Young, Zingerman 's Roadhouse, Ann Arbor, Mich.
New York City
Terrance Brennan, Picholine
Floyd Cardoz, Tabla
Wylie Dufresne, WD-50
Gabriel Kreuther, The Modern
X David Waltuck, Chanterelle
Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY STATE, RI, VT)
Rob Evans, Hugo 's, Portland
Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier, Arrows, Ogunquit, Maine
Michael Leviton, Lumière, West Newton, Mass.
X Frank McClelland, L’Espalier, Boston
Marc Orfaly, Pigalle, Boston
Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY)
Scott Dolich, Park Kitchen, Portland
Maria Hines, Tilth, Seattle
X Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez, The Harvest Vine, Seattle
Holly Smith, Café Juanita, Kirkland, Wash.
John Sundstrom, Lark, Seattle
Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)
Hugh Acheson, Five & Ten, Athens, Ga.
X Arnaud Berthelier, The Dining Room in the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, Atlanta
John Fleer, Blackberry Farm, Walland, Tenn.
Mike Lata, Fig, Charleston
Scott Peacock, Watershed, Decatur, Ga.
Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, NV, OK, TX, UT)
David Bull, Driskill Grill, Austin, Texas
Nobuo Fukuda, Sea Saw, Scottsdale, Ariz.
X Sharon Hage, York Street, Dallas
Monica Pope, Tafia, Houston
Andrew Weisman, Restaurant Le Rêve, San Antonio
South (AL. AR, FL, LA, MS)
Michelle Bernstein, Michy 's, Miami
John Currence, City Grocery, Oxford, Miss.
Jonathan Eismann, Pacific Time, Miami Beach
Chris Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club, Birmingham, Ala.
X Donald Link, Herbsaint, New Orleans
I’m not going to predict the design and graphics awards, but here they are, in case you’re curious:
Outstanding Restaurant Design
Lewis. Tsurumaki. Lewis (LTD) Architects
Designers: Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis, New York City
For Xing Restaurant
Rockwell Group
Designers: David Rockwell, Shawn Sullivan, Nils Guldager
New York City
For Nobu Fifty Seven
Tadao Ando Architects and Associates
Designers: Tadao Ando, Stephanie Goto, Masataka Yano
New York City
For Morimoto
Outstanding Restaurant Graphics
Baron and Baron
Designers: Fabien Baron, Takashi Hiratsuka
New York City
For Buddakan
Base Design
New York City
For Stand
Memo Productions
Designers: Douglas Riccardi, Lisa Eaton
New York City
For Pizzeria Mozza (in LA)
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