The James Beard Nominations Are In: How Did Seattle Fare?
The James Beard Foundation today narrowed down its long and inclusive list of semi-finalists to no more than five nominees in each category for its prestigious culinary awards (yes, if you must, the Oscars of the restaurant set).
Yet again, Portland dominated the category of Best Chef: Northwest while some of our local semifinalist chefs and restaurants didn't end up on the nominations list for the big-time national James Beard awards. But overall Seattle can hold its head up high. See the entire list of nominees here.
First of all, our own Farestart was named James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year, so big applause for some well-deserved recognition, announced late last week.
Like last year, two of the five Best Chef: Northwest nominees hail from the 206 area code--namely Matt Dillon for Sitka & Spruce and Ethan Stowell for Staple & Fancy. They're up against three Portland contenders: Andy Ricker of Pok Pok (among other places); Christopher Israel of Gruner; and Nostrana chef Cathy Whims.
First the good news--Canlis is (again) officially nominated in the category of Outstanding Service (wine director Nelson Daquip was a semi-finalist in the Outstanding Wine Service category). And Tom Douglas (again) made the cut in the category of Outstanding Restaurateur. The group assembled at the announcement lunch at the Oregon Culinary Institute actually broke into a bit of laughter at how long it took to read out Douglas's nomination, complete with a list all seven restaurants (a number that will grow to 10 within the month).
The bummers: Semi-finalist Holly Smith and her restaurant Cafe Juanita weren't among the nominees for Outstanding Chef or Outstanding Restaurant. Jerry Traunfeld of Poppy was also a semi-finalist for Outstanding Chef. Both chefs have won Best Chef: Northwest awards in the past. And while he's got his Best Chef: Northwest nomination to console him, Stowell's newest restaurant Staple & Fancy didn't make the final list of nominations for Best New Restaurant in the country.
Super disappointing: semi-finalist Blaine Wetzel of The Willows Inn on Lummi Island wasn't in fact a nominee for Rising Star Chef (apparently the James Beard Folks didn't heed the advice of the New York Times).
Having two nominations in the Northwest category isn't necessarily a bad thing: last year Jason Wilson of Crush took Best Chef: Northwest honors. And conventional James Beard wisdom holds that chefs are usually nominated a few times before they bring home a win, so we look forward to some of our local names appearing and reappearing in assorted categories until they emerge victorious.
On the journalism side of things, local food writer Sara Dickerman shares a nomination in the Cooking, Recipes, or Instruction category for submissions to Saveur. And our soon-to-be Seattle Weekly restaurant critic Hanna Raskin is nominated in the Group Food Blog category for her "City of Ate" blog at the Dallas Observer--hopefully a window into what we can expect over at Voracious when she arrives. We also must mention the sheer awesomeness that Twitter personality @RuthBourdain got a nomination in the Humor category.
The winners will be announced in early May in New York. If Portland is going to make a tradition of dominating the Best Chef: Northwest category, let's make it a Seattle tradition to take home the win.
