Got a spare hundred bucks on hand, a delicious dream in your heart and a keyboard at your fingertips? Then hie thee to jamesbeard.org and download entry forms for the 2010 James Beard Foundation's Book, Journalism, Broadcast Media and Design Awards.
Veteran entrants of the Journalism Awards will note that there are a few alterations from previous ballots (full disclosure -- I'm the vice chair of the committee that oversees the Journalism Awards), namely that the Restaurant Review award has been redubbed the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award, the former Newspaper Feature Writing Without Recipes and With Recipes categories have been combined into single category, and there's no requirement for the Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer, Food-related Columns, or Reporting on Health, Environment and Nutrition entrants to have ever appeared in print. Online's just fine.
Why the changes? Funny thing - we cracked a window in the Beard House's Peter Kump Boardroom during our last meeting and noticed it was 2009 outside. Oops.
Restaurant devotees also may submit their favorite chefs and restaurant for inclusion in the James Beard Restaurant Awards via a handy online form at jamesbeard.starchefs.com.
He may be the David Chang of the West Coast. At 29 (two years younger than Sir David) Nate Appleman of A16 and SPQR is on the verge of opening an A16 offshoot in Tokyo, a new restaurant in San Francisco, has penned an award-winning cookbook and been showered with praise. Now, after three years on the nominee list, he is the owner of the Rising Star Chef James Beard Award. We caught up with Appleman yesterday afternoon to chat about his wayward childhood, why he lives in California, whole animals and his favorite kitchen utensil -- a bloody cleaver.
What did it feel like to finally win? The third time is the charm. It was incredible. It was kind of all surreal.
How did it feel when you were passed over for the second time? It was disappointing, but I thought, I got next year. (A Rising Star must be 30 or under.) What's it like to be the only non-New Yorker to win a national award? That's a huge, huge honor. It's not a secret that the awards are New York-dominated. To win from being outside of New York makes it that much sweeter.
Until this Monday, Babbo Pastry Chef Gina DePalma was the Kate Winslet of the culinary world, earning six James Beard Award nominations for the honor of Outstanding Pastry Chef but never taking the cake. The seventh time, though, proved to be the ... er ... icing. We caught up with DePalma this morning to chat about victory, pastry, her battle with ovarian cancer and her boss, the boisterous Mario Batali (aka Mr. Fanta Pants).
What did it feel like to the finally win a James Beard Award? I tried not to break down into tears. I tried to keep myself together up there. After seven years, you try to emotionally turn yourself off. In past years I thought it was such a big deal to win, but it still felt good.
Is that why you were emotional on stage? That was part of it. It's also been a very tough year for me. I don't know if you know, I have been battling ovarian cancer. I was diagnosed four days after my sixth loss. I had a huge operation and went through chemo and lost all my hair. I am still in treatment. It was stage four. It was end of the line, but they got it all in surgery.
Hear why salted caramels should die and why DePalma is afraid to rock orange crocs after the jump.
At long last, the wait for the nation's biggest foodie honors is over. Slashfood spent nearly every waking second since Sunday night live-Twittering the James Beard Award winners @slashfood live from the scene.
A New York culinary favorite, David Chang of Momofuku Ko took home the best new restaurant award, while Drew Nieporent of the Myriad Restaurant Group was named outstanding restaurateur.
Dig in to the full restaurant, chef and cookbook winners after the jump along with red-carpet photos.
Whew! We're exhausted post Media Awards and Chefs Night Out Soiree and will be taking a brief nap before live-Twittering the results for Restaurants and Books on Monday evening as @slashfood. In the meantime, congrats to ...
Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs
Katy McLaughlin The Wall Street Journal "Sushi Bullies"
We'll be live-Twittering tonight's James Beard Media Awards and Monday's Restaurant Awards, so follow along @slashfood. Meanwhile, snack on these links to the nominated articles, recipes, reviews, food sections, sites, blogs and books.
Journalism Awards
For articles published in English in 2008.
Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants And/Or Chefs
Another day, another list. Yesterday the good folks at San Pellegrino released their annual World's 50 BestRestaurants, a sort of Rough Guide for gastronomes with fat wallets and abundant frequent flyer miles. Sponsored by the sparkling water company, the list was decided by a panel of 800-plus judges comprised of food writers, critics and chefs from around the world. The judges were big fans of Spain, whose six restaurants on the list included Ferran Adria's El Bulli (coming in at No. 1 for the fourth year in a row). France also got some love with eight restaurants, and the U.S. did pretty well for itself with seven eateries including new-to-the-list Momofuku Ssam Bar at 31 and Alinea, whose Grant Achatz rose 26 places from 2007 to a No. 10 ranking this year.
The big loser was undoubtedly Gordon Ramsay, whose London flagship completely disappeared after ranking at No. 13 last year, and whose ex-friend Marcus Wareing won the Breakthrough Restaurant Award for Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley -- not without taking a swipe at Ramsay himself.
Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer: Jon Bonné (San Francisco Chronicle), Jay McInerney (Men's Vogue), Alan Richman (GQ)
Food-Related Columns: Dorie Greenspan (Bon Appétit), Corby Kummer (The Atlantic) and Laura Shapiro (Gourmet.com)
Nutrition/Food-Related Issues: Barry Estabrook (Gourmet), Mark Adams, et al (New York Magazine), Rachael Moeller Gorman (EatingWell)
Restaurant Reviews: Jonathan Gold (LA Weekly), Adam Platt (New York Magazine) and Tom Sietsema (The Washington Post)
Magazine Feature Writing w/o Recipes: Alan Richman (GQ), Patricia Sharpe (Texas Monthly), Monique Truong (Gourmet) Magazine Feature with Recipes: Edna Lewis (Gourmet)*published posthumously, David Dobbs and John Ash (EatingWell), James Peterson (Saveur)
Magazine Feature Writing about Restaurants and/or Chefs: Ruth Reichl (Gourmet), Alan Richman (Departures), Anya von Bremzen (Food & Wine)
Newspaper Food Section: Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post
Newspaper Feature w/ Recipes: Rebekah Denn (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), David Leite (New York Times), Kathleen Purvis (Charlotte Observer)
Newspaper Feature w/o Recipes: Monica Eng (Chicago Tribune), Kristen Hinman (Riverfront Times) and Craig LaBan (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Newspaper Feature about Restaurants and/or Chefs: Monica Eng/Phil Vettel(Chicago Trib), Katy McLaughlin (WSJ), Tom Sietsema (The Wash Post)
MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: Celia Barbour (O, The Oprah Magazine), Aleksandra Crapanzano (Gourmet), Alan Richman (GQ) Restaurant, Cookbook and Media Awards nominees are after the jump.
Over the years, the name James Beard has become synonymous with quality food, food writing, restaurant design and food media. Each May, all the players in the food world gather in New York to honor the best among them. However, when they convene in 2009, there's going to be whole new contingent in their midst.
Blogs have become an essential part of today's evolving media landscape. They provide journalists from both traditional and nontraditional backgrounds with an immediate, direct outlet for their work, and open up an unprecedented avenue for vibrant dialogue with readers. With the addition of this vital new category, the James Beard Foundation recognizes the tremendous impact that blogs have had on food journalism, and their importance to the future of the medium.
I look forward with great interest and excitement to seeing which blogs the James Beard Foundation will select as their first honorees.
In 2007, the WHYY program A Chef's Table, was up for a James Beard Award. An acquaintance of mine works as a producer for that show and so I followed the outcome of the awards with a fervor akin to that which my fellow Philadelphians apply to the Eagles. Sadly, Lari and her team didn't win (although they did get a nice dinner out of it).
The 2008 award events were held over this last weekend and this morning the complete list of award winners was available online. I was particularly glad to see that Barbara Kingsolver won for her book on local eating, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Congrats also to Josh Ozersky and Daniel Maurer who write New York Magazine's food blog Grub Street for grabbing the award for Multimedia Writing on Food.
Make sure to check out all the nominees and winners, as there is so much amazing writing, radio and television on that list. It could potentially keep you busy until the awards are announced next year.
I love cookbooks, and I have entirely too many of them. There are cookbooks that are like travelogues, cookbooks that inspire, cookbooks that educate. There are cookbooks full of food porn. I've got all of these and more.
Then there are cookbooks I actually use. I only have a few of these.
My favorite is Jeanne Lemlin's classic Quick Vegetarian Pleasures. Bought used more than ten years ago from City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, it was my first cookbook of married, domesticated life. It got wide use not only because of the thrift of its ingredients and the ease with which they're combined. Mostly we used it three or four times a week because just about everything in it turns out delicious.
Our all-time favorite: Vegetable cous-cous. The easiest, tastiest dish you'll ever make for potlucks or easy dinners. The vegetarian lasagna is legendary in my circle. The braised fennel. Grated zucchini saute. It all works. It's all tasty. None of it is complicated.
Published in 1992, this volume was awarded the James Beard Cookbook of the Year award. And little wonder. Lemlin's book is one of those little gems of an everyday cookbook.
Blogger and food writer Ed Levine was at the annual James Beard Foundation Awards dinner last night and, very luckily for all of us who couldn't attend, photoblogged the whole thing! The event is often called the culinary equivalent of the Oscars and when the nominees are announced, there is a sense of aniticipation for the ceremony. Unfortunately, just like the Oscars, not everyone can win, no matter how much it seems that each person deserves to. Thanks to Ed, we got a sneak peek at the winners last night, even though the offical press release has yet to be seen just came out. I'll mention right now that this list is not complete, but a full list is now available at the James Beard Foundation website, or by following the links after the jump.
Lifetime Achievement - Judith Jones
Best Cookbook - Sunday Suppers at Lucques, by Suaanne Goins
Best Television Food Show - How to Cook Everything (on PBS)
Best Webcast - Spatulata.com (Isabella, 10, and Olivia Gerasole, 8, prepare a dinner's worth of recipes every two weeks. They are the youngest recipients in the history of the awards)
Best New Restaurant - Modern in NY
Best Restaurant - The French Laundry
Best Restaurant Service - Gary Danko
Best Chef - Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill
Best Restaurateur - Daniel Boulud
Best Food Section, large circulation - SF Chronicle
Best Food Section, small circulation - Denver Post
He may be the 
Until this Monday, 
At long last, the wait for the nation's biggest foodie honors is over. Slashfood spent nearly every waking second since Sunday night live-Twittering the James Beard Award winners 
Another day, another 
Over the years, the name James Beard has become synonymous with quality food, food writing, restaurant design and food media. Each May, all the players in the food world gather in New York to honor the best among them. However, when they convene in 2009, there's going to be whole new contingent in their midst. 
In 2007, the 
I love cookbooks, and I have entirely too many of them. There are cookbooks that are like travelogues, cookbooks that inspire, cookbooks that educate. There are cookbooks full of food porn. I've got all of these and more.
Blogger and food writer 
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