Making Good

Seattle chefs are making national news: here's a roundup of the latest.

More attention should have been paid to the James Beard awards this year. After three nominations, Scott Carsberg of Lampreia finally won as"Best Chef, Northwest." Backhanded compliment for this modest craftsman: they misspelled the restaurant's name on the website. Sheesh! Then again, most winners have, at some point, cooked a benefit dinner at James Beard House; not Scott. Nor did he attend the awards banquet; it's not his thing. What is his thing? Ah, that would be his meticulously composed tasting menu, the pride of Belltown.

Scott's next-door neighbor, Leslie Mackie of Macrina Bakery, was nominated as "Best Pastry Chef." The Stranger's Sara Dickerman won a food-writing award for her work on Slate.com. Altogether, good haul for Seattle.

And while we're at it, the New York Times has a fine article (free registration required) by Johnny Apple today on Salumi, calling Armandino Batali's culatello the best ham America.

Couple of weeks back, Apple wrote a wonderful piece about Olympia oysters and the fellow who single-handedly brought them back from the brink of extinction: Jon Rowley. Slurp!

Finally, the current issue of Esquire, featuring "The Best Bars in America." Whew! They didn't ignore Seattle's best, the ZigZag Cafe. Recommends the Deshler: Dubonnet, rye, Cointreau, bitters. Turns out their Northwest correspondent was local cocktail guru Robert Hess. Cheers!

Lampreia, 2400 First Ave., 206-443-3301