Anne Fishbein

Eric Alperin on the phone at the Varnish

For 10 years, Tales of the Cocktail has been doing for cocktail culture what the James Beard Foundation has been doing for food culture: advancing the craft of the drink through education, networking, promotion and a bit of sanctioned mayhem. Each summer the organization throws a massive party in -- where else? -- New Orleans, sponsoring competitions, seminars and well-lubricated discussions going late into the night. (In case you were wondering, seminars begin at the crack of 10 a.m. each morning. No rest for the wicked, evidently.)

Since 2006, Tales of the Cocktail has sponsored a bevy of honors of its own called the Spirited Awards, rewarding excellence in service and performance in various categories in a given year.

Ten nominees in 17 categories were announced last week, and this year, without a doubt, Los Angeles represents. Three of the nominations for Best American Cocktail Bar were snagged by L.A. establishments -- Harvard & Stone, La Descarga and the Varnish -- only New York can boast similar numbers. And one of these, the Varnish, is in the running as one of 10 nominated as the World's Best Cocktail Bar.

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The James Beard awards are the food equivalent of the Oscars: prestigious golden whatsits, fancy dress event, silly acceptance speeches, requisite grouching about the whole thing being rigged. Oh, yes, and lots of highly talented people getting much-deserved recognition. This year's awards ceremony took place earlier this evening at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, with Alton Brown officiating. Hey, this year they even lit up the Empire State building in James Beard's favorite colors to celebrate the event. Imagine if they did that to Disney Hall.

On Friday, the Beard Foundation announced the book, broadcast and journalism awards, with Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine winning Cookbook of the Year. Michael Ruhlman won in the General Cooking category for Ruhlman's Twenty; and Paula Wolfert in the International category for The Food of Morocco. Food52 and Gastronomica won for Publication of the Year. In local news, Los Angeles magazine's Lesley Bargar Suter won for Food Coverage in a General-Interest Publication.

And tonight? (Drumroll, etc.) Matt Molina (Osteria Mozza) won Best Chef: Pacific. Although others from L.A. were nominated, Molina was this town's sole winner in the chef and restaurant categories. Congrats, Matt. In news outside this town, Boulevard in San Francisco won Outstanding Restaurant, Daniel Humm of New York City's Eleven Madison Park won Outstanding Chef, Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar won Rising Star Chef of the Year, Seattle's Tom Douglas won Outstanding Restaurateur, and Mindy Segal of Mindy's HotChocolate in Chicago won Outstanding Pastry Chef. Turn the page for a complete list of winners.

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Anne Fishbein

Nancy Silverton and Matt Molina at Mozza

If you're the sort of food-obsessed person who will be following Twitter this afternoon and evening to find out exactly who's winning awards, or who's complaining about not having done so, at tonight's James Beard Awards ceremony, you might consider just live-streaming the event. That's what the folks at Mozza usually do, at least those not in New York for the event. They'll have good reason to tonight.

Among Los Angeles chefs, restaurateurs and designers nominated this year: Nancy Silverton (outstanding chef), Matt Molina (best chef, Pacific) and Dahlia Narvaez (outstanding pastry chef), all from Mozza. For outstanding service, both Piero Selvaggio of Valentino and Caroline Styne of Lucques, A.O.C. and Tavern were nominated. Clive Piercy of Air Conditioned was nominated for outstanding restaurant graphics for his work at Farmshop. Wolfgang Puck (Spago, WP24, the world) will be receiving a lifetime achievement award. (Here's a complete list of 2012 Beard nominees.)

More reason to live-stream the event? Rumor is there will be some sort of foie protest, possibly targeting Puck, who has publicly supported the ban. (No Lakers game tonight; and the Clippers game isn't on until 7:30 p.m. Just in case you were worrying about any potential scheduling conflict.) Turn the page for the site.

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Noma

Everyone loves a list, particularly a ranked list. We do. David Letterman does. Water companies do. Thus San Pellegrino has just announced its list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants. For the third consecutive year, Noma in Copenhagen comes in at No. 1. (Congratulations to Rene Redzepi, who is having quite a year in lists.) Second and third place also are repeats from last year: Spain's El Celler de Can Roca at No. 2; and Mugaritz, also in Spain, at No. 3.

In fourth place is D.O.M. in Sao Paulo, Brazil (up three places from last year); fifth place goes to Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy (down one); and in sixth place is Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York (up four). Finishing out the top 10: Grant Achatz's Alinea at seven; Arzak in Spain at No. 8; Dinner by Heston Blumental in London at No. 9; and New York's Eleven Madison Park at No. 10. So, three each for Spain and the United States. Not bad, all things considered.

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Spirits Tasting

In certain glossy magazine and high-end spirits competition circles, a vodka's photogenic front-page appeal is as important as what's inside the bottle in determining its award-winning value. But with the American Distilling Institute's annual Artisan American Spirits Awards, which were released last week, it's best not to judge those rather bland winner's circle photographs on the trade association's website. We mean that as a compliment.

This is the sort of awards list you scroll through when you want to find the most interesting artisan spirits for sipping, not just for bar shelf visual appeal - though if that's your thing, there's an "excellence in packaging" award here, too. But mostly you'll find moonshine and bourbon that hails from distilleries with names like Dark Corner or Ole Smoky, and rums that have been affectionately dubbed Three Sheets (from San Diego's Ballast Point, which took home several awards) and Cane and Abe ("Old Abe" was the name of a Civil War-era bald eagle mascot in Wisconsin).

The Man Booker Prize of moonshine, if you will. Get the list of this year's artisan American spirits winners after the jump.

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finedininglovers.com

Chef Elena Arzak

Preparatory to naming the World's 50 Best Restaurants, the folks at S. Pellegrino, Acqua Panna and Restaurant magazine and, it seems, Veuve Clicquot, last year established a shiny new award: The World's Best Female Chef. This year's winner has just been named. The 2012 Veuve Clicquot World's Best Female Chef is Elena Arzak, who is the co-head chef at Arzak Restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Arzak's father is Juan Mari Arzak, celebrated chef and inventor of the Arzak egg (go read Lucky Peach).

Elena Arzak, the fourth generation of her family to work at Arzak Restaurant, has worked at some other pretty swank restaurants, including Ferran Adrià's El Bulli (now closed), Pierre Gagnaire in Paris and Le Gavroche in London.

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Anne Fishbein

Chef Bryant Ng at The Spice Table

Last night Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin announced the winners of that magazine's 24th annual Best New Chefs in America award. You know the drill: ten chefs from around the country are picked, awarded, featured in the July issue and fêted at the Aspen Food & Wine Classic this summer. So, drumroll please.

At the top of the list (for us) is Bryant Ng of The Spice Table. Congratulations, Bryant! Ng, the opening chef at Mozza and a native of Singapore, opened The Spice Table in Little Tokyo in March of 2011. Were there other winners? I suppose there were. Turn the page for the complete list.

Food & Wine choses the chefs for this award "with restaurant critics, food writers and other trusted experts around the country." The magazine editors visit the restaurants incognito (Their word! How cool. Disguises maybe even.) to see and eat for themselves. Chefs under consideration have been in charge of kitchens for five years or less. They are "New Chefs" after all.

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The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- yes, that's an old joke now, but you try googling IACP and see what you
get -- announced their 2012 award winners at their annual conference last night in New York City. The event was hosted by Mo Rocca of the Cooking Channel show Food(ography).

This year's winners included L.A.'s very own KCRW's Good Food with Evan Kleiman for Audio Series (Long Format); Tasting India by Christine Manfield won Cookbook of the Year; Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Billet in The Design Award and Professional Kitchens category; Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck for First Book (The Julia Child Award); and in the Food and Beverage Reference/Technical category, Ruhlman's Twenty by Michael Ruhlman. Other notable winners included Saveur.com for Culinary Website, and Gilt Taste for Culinary Product or Brand Website. There are plenty of other winners in plenty of other categories, including one for Corporate Marketing Campaign of the Year. Who knew.

Turn the page for the complete list of winners via Eater. (Why Eater? Because the IACP has not yet finished their press release, nor posted the results on their website. They directed us to Eater. Therefore to Eater.)

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Yesterday the James Beard Foundation announced its 2012 nominations for book awards, journalism, design and graphics, broadcast and media, and restaurant and chefs. It is a very long list. There were also awards given for lifetime achievement (Wolfgang Puck!) and humanitarian of the year (Charlie Trotter!), in addition to a list of inductees into the Who's Who of food and beverage. Like we said: a long list.

As for the L.A. highlights, Jonathan Gold was nominated for a Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award for pieces written for this publication; Lesley Bargar Suter was nominated for her work in Los Angeles magazine.

In the Mozza category, Nancy Silverton (outstanding chef), Matt Molina (best chef, Pacific) and Dahlia Narvaez (outstanding pastry chef) all picked up nominations. For outstanding service, both Piero Selvaggio of Valentino and Caroline Styne of Lucques, A.O.C. and Tavern were nominated. Clive Piercy of Air Conditioned was nominated for outstanding restaurant graphics for his work at Farmshop.

Winners will be announced in May. For a complete list of nominees and awards, turn the page.

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Micah Wexler (left), Giselle Wellman (middle), Casey Lane (right).

Some of our favorite young chefs made Zagat's first ever Los Angeles 30 Under 30 list (aka how to make anyone over 30 feel inadequate). The honorees include Nyesha Arrington (Wilshire), Joshua Drew (Farmshop), Jordan Kahn (Red Medicine), Ilan Hall (The Gorbals), Casey Lane (Tasting Kitchen), Craig Thornton (Wolvesmouth), Giselle Wellman (Petrossian) and Micah Wexler (Mezze).

The list isn't restricted to chefs but also spotlights bar managers, beverage directors, a beer sommelier (Paige Reilly of Tony's Darts Away) and even a cheesemonger (Bradley Watkins of Wally's Cheese Box). [Full list after the jump.]

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