The James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Midwest was announced Monday at the awards dinner, and it was not a chef from Missouri. Alexander Roberts of Minneapolis' Alma beat Colby Garrelts of Bluestem and Gerard Craft of Niche in St. Louis. Roberts was one of three chefs nominated from Minnesota, and is the first to win from the state.
We congratulate Garrelts, who's been nominated for a James Beard Award the past four years and named a finalist for the past two.
In other awards: Daniel in New York City was named the Best Restaurant; Tom Colicchio was named Outstanding Chef; and New York City's Marea was named the Best New Restaurant. A complete list of winners is available here.
The foundation ran a live blog
throughout the event that was entertaining if snarky. The Chicago
Tribune also live-blogged
the event (Chicago restaurants and chefs walked away with three
awards). While members of the media dined on artisanal cheese and bacon-infused caviar, they also peppered the chefs with a series of non sequiturs.
And out of the mouths of prestigious chefs always come some interesting answers. Not as interesting as what you learn at 4 a.m. in Chinatown, but you take what you can get. Here are a few hand-picked links from the James Beard Foundation's blog:
Outstanding Chef Award Winner Tom Colicchio talked about the potentially combustible relationship between new media and restaurants and chefs.
When it comes to chowing down at the mini-bar, Chef Daniel Boulud (his restaurant, Daniel, took him the best restaurant award) is apparently a fan of Pringles.
Vegetarians will be pleased by the leading candidate
for the next big trend in food.
Television host Alton Brown has a food weakness made for the Midwest.
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