winners of james beard

hello! james beard awards have been handed out! and the winner are listed here! a good article from eater.com dishes out the 411 on the award ceremony. and according to the website, here are the new york city winners:

"New York award winners were David Chang (Rising Star), L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (Best New Restaurant), Michael Laskonis of Le Bernardin (Outstanding Pastry Chef) and in the NYC regional best chef category, David Waltuck upset heavies Terrance Brennan, Wylie Dufresne, Floyd Cardoz, and Gabriel Kreuther."

and i'm proud to note that thomas keller from french laundry took an award home for outstanding restauranteur category. and i love momofuku!

james beard nominations!!!

The James Beard Nominations are out! I don't know why I'm more excited about this foodie-lovers' award than the Oscars. Maybe because I feel like I have a personal involvement with these restaurants, cookbooks and cooking shows? I guess it can be compared to checking to see which nominated films I've seen... checking to see which nominated restaurants I've been to and where I need to go next!

Of course, my favorite section begins at page 7 (YES, there 10 pages of nominations in different categories) where the best restaurants and chefs categories begin! I'm ecstatic to see that Thomas Keller for The French Laundry have been nominated for Outstanding Restauranteur Award! Looove anything associated with Thomas Keller. And as usual, many of the restaurant and chef categories are dominated by New York or San Francisco. Spotted with places and people from Chicago in between. Which is my other favorite city. It also makes me realize that I have not been to many of the "great" restaurants in NYC while I've been here. I need to change that pronto!

Some of the restaurants that I really want to hit up in NYC:

Momofuku Ssäm Bar

A Voce

Craft

I've only been to Jardiniére in San Francisco and totally regret that I was not able to go to La Folie... although, i used to live 2 blocks away from there on Polk Street!

Man, I get SO excited about food!