"awards" news and stories

The James Beard Foundation, a world-renowned not-for-profit organization based in New York City, held their annual awards gala earlier this week and named their choices for the best of the best in the culinary world. Since there are simply far too many recipients to list them all here, I've just chosen a few from select categories, but you can view the list in it's entirety at their website.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Barbara Kafka

BOOK AWARDS CATEGORIES:

Cookbook of the Year:
THE LEE BROS. SOUTHERN COOKBOOK by Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Baking:
FROM MY HOME TO YOURS by Dorie Greenspan

Asian:
CRADLE OF FLAVOR by James Oseland

Cookbook Hall of Fame:
MOOSEWOOD COOKBOOK by Mollie Katzen

Wine & Spirits:
ROMANCING THE VINE by Alan Tardi

Read on after the jump to find out the winners in the Chef and Restaurant categories.

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An email I received from Jessica's Biscuit pointed out that the nominees for the International Association of Culinary Professions Awards (IACP) and the James Beard Foundation Awards were both announced yesterday. For those unfamiliar, both awards are akin to receiving an Oscar within the food community. Both recognize outstanding cookbooks, journalism and professionals in the food world, and while there is some overlap, the list of nominees for Beard Foundation Awards is far lengthier. Beard nominees for best food-related website include Leite's Culinaria, Epicurious and Dr. Vino's Wine Blog. There are also categories for webcasts, weekly newspaper sections, magazines, and a diverse array of awards chefs and cookbooks. The IACP is presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Knopf VP and editor Judith Jones (who helped launch Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and a Humanitarian Award to Frontera Grill's Rick Bayless. Go check out both sites and see if any of your favorites have made the lists of nominees.

Nominations are now closed and the official judges have used some as-yet undefined criteria to cull through the nominated blogs and choose five for each category. The process is actually a bit akin to the academy awards, where the most popular blogs sometimes - but not always - make the final cut, and others that are less well known end up on the ballot. That being said, the process is what it is and all of the blogs that are up for the awards really do deserve to be there, as do all of the nominated blogs, though they haven't all been officially recognized.

So if you want to see if your own favorite blog made the cut, or just check out some new ones, head on over to WellFed and peruse all of the categories vote for your top choice in each. I'm not going to attempt to influence you opinion in any category but one because Slashfood is nominated for the best group blog category. Now, there's no pressure to vote for us, but if you have nothing better to do for the next 5 seconds or so, feel free to cast a vote.

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The 2006 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was held on December 10th at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden. The event is, of course, one of the most well-recognized celebrations of achievement in the world and prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Economics and Literature were officially awarded.

In addition to the ceremony, there is a huge banquet - and we always look forward to hearing about what was served. This year, the three-course menu included a mosaic of salmon and scallops with Kalix bleak roe; herb-baked saddle of lamb, mashed potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, olive oil-glazed vegetables and port wine sauce; and pineapple parfait with caramelized pineapple salad and mint. The wines served included Pommery Grand Cru Vintage 1996 Champagne, Veenwouden Classic 2002 Paarl and Château Haut-Bergeron 2003 Sauternes.

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The Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling is a botrytized, late harvest wine from Milawa in Victoria, Australia. The ultra-ripe Riesling grapes give it a deep rich gold color with a smooth and luscious body. The aroma is full of fresh and preserved apricots and peaches. The taste has a great balance of acidity to sweetness, full of flavors including plum, buttery toffee, vanilla, and candied citrus, with a strong botrytis character. It is rich, and smooth with a long, sweet/tart finish. This is a mighty tasty sticky (Aussie for sweet dessert wine) that isn't too sweet and has good acidity leaving you wanting just another sip, and another.

The Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling's have won numerous awards and medals over the past few years. The 2000 vintage is no exception, with a whole slew including the 2002 Gold Canberra Wine Show, 2002 Gold Sydney Wine Show, 2002 Gold Hobart Wine Show, and the Willmes Trophy Canberra 2002 for Best Sweet Table Wine. It retails for around $18-25US.