"James Beard Awards" news and stories

Ruth Bourdain, the Twitter sage we've all come to love for lines like "You haven't truly celebrated St. Patrick's Day until you've sous-vided a whole leprechaun" has entered the big leagues with a James Beard award nomination in this year's new humor category.

The hilarious persona is a mash-up of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain who quickly gained attention by reworking Reichl's zen 140-character tweets into raunchy Bourdain-like missives. But before this nomination, the persona was little more than a lark. Now Ruth Bourdain shares the same James Beard ballot as L.A. food critic Jonathan Gold and renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The nomination is shaking up food circles, with some foodies saying it undermines serious food journalism, while others, like Saveur's Gabriella Gershenson, think it's all in good fun. (She gave the nod a "Bravo! (Brava?)" on her twitter account.)

At the James Beard Awards this week, cookbook author Claudia Roden received the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award: She was inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame for her landmark tome, "A Book of Middle Eastern Food," first published in 1972. Roden, who lives in London, was in Manhattan to accept the award, and spoke to Slashfood.

Where does your love of Middle Eastern food come from?
CR: I come from Egypt. When I lived there, it was a very cosmopolitan country, like Dubai today. People from all around the area came there for business. When the Suez Canal crisis happened, it resulted in Jews having to leave Egypt. This whole big shock of having to leave brought to me the urgency of collecting recipes because we never had a cookbook. There were never any recipes in print at all. It didn't exist.

More with Claudia Roden after the jump ...

The hangovers are just wearing off, but the winners are still floating and gloating following this year's James Beard awards, held at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York City's Lincoln Center. Our man at the awards wraps up the night and reveals how "The Beards" are about more than handing out medals and garnering backslaps from one's chef peers. They are a hotbed of deal-making and industry schmoozing, confirming -- as Jacques Pepin says in this video -- the once lowly profession of "chef" has become something American culture views as the province of "geniuses." Hear Tom Colicchio revel in his victory and see what the kitchenfolk wear when they shed their aprons and stroll the red carpet.

At the annual James Beard Foundation awards, held May 3 in Manhattan, many important awards were handed out to many famous chefs. But one of the most interesting tidbits of food-world news was shared backstage after the ceremony at Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall.

Tom Colicchio (the "Top Chef" judge) won the most prestigious award, for Outstanding Chef in America. One chef who was beaten by Colicchio is the Spaniard José Andrés, but he's nevertheless having a fantastic year. Andrés, a disciple of Ferran Adrià, was profiled recently on "60 Minutes," and his Los Angeles restaurant Bazaar is the hottest table in the city.

On the red carpet, Andrés deflected a question about whether the "60 Minutes" piece had led to a flood of reservations.

• For Jews, tonight will be different from all other nights -- but many of the foods will be the same. Here, a taste test of the usual Passover suspects.
• And now, a taste test of kosher wines!
• Um... Did Denver just call Oklahoma City fat?
• The James Beard nominations included several Denver and Boulder foodies.
• ... And one of those nominees is Denver Post blogger Eugenia Bone.