J. Ritz

Outstanding Chef nom Suzanne Goin and Best NYC Chef winner Gabrielle Hamilton on the green carpet outside the JBFAs.

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We Californians have a reputation, however fictional or exaggerated, for looking on the bright side of things. So when it comes to reporting on the 2011 James Beard Foundation Awards, which took place last night at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, we'll take a glass-half-full approach. Even if Los Angeles JBFA restaurant nominees won't come home donning medals with a bald man around their necks, a strong handful of choice chefs attended the awards and represented L.A. at the event, the theme of which was the Ultimate Melting Pot. These folks came both as award hopefuls and supporters.

Meanwhile, this paper's critic was inducted into the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America category, closely following the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award that Mr. Gold won at Friday's JBF Media Awards. Here's a complete list of last night's winners.

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​It's a case of local boy makes good -- make that two local boys -- at this year's James Beard Media Awards. Our own Jonathan Gold won the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award while Patrick Kuh of Los Angeles magazine won the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award. In the first ever Humor category, odds-on favorite Ruth Bourdain won. (She did not publicly accept her award.)

Other noteworthy awards went to Diana Kennedy, who won best cookbook of the year for Oaxaca al Gusto, which our cookbook reviewer described as "her best cookbook to date." Top Chef won best TV show while Politics Of The Plate won Best Individual Food Blog. Pig: King of the Southern Table by James Villas won American Cooking, and Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours by former Los Angeles pastry chef Kim Boyce and Squid Ink editor Amy Scattergood won in the Baking and Dessert category.

The chef and restaurant winners will be announced tonight in New York.

[Full list of cookbook and writing winners after the jump.]

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​In addition to a streamlined new look, Melrose-and-Western neighborhood favorite Osteria La Buca is getting a streamlined menu courtesy of new executive chef Jason Neroni, an Orange County native known for his cooking at Brooklyn's Porchetta and Manhattan's 10 Downing Food & Wine. (He's also known for sending an email, something of a New York tempest in a teapot, soliciting nominations for a James Beard Award.)

La Buca, a "bastion of new-generation Italian comfort food," has been without an executive chef since Alberto Lazzarino relocated to Italy with his family a couple of months ago. The restaurant closed last week for the revamp, but will reopen on April 6th, with new dishes being rolled out incrementally in subsequent weeks. Look for house-made salumis and pastas as well as pizza, sputini and porchetta. The overhaualded bar menu will feature more Italian-style cocktails, a popular theme among the newest wave of L.A.'s Italian bars and restaurants (see: Bar Toscana, Sotto).

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J. Garbee

Weighing In With Salty Opinions

​The Husband: Your James Beard books arrived, several boxes. One weighed 50 pounds.
James Beard Reviewer: Ha, you're funny.
TH: I'm not kidding. I had to help Jerry [our UPS guy] carry them up the stairs.
JBR: Seriously? Shit.

Those text messages summarize what happened when this writer was asked to be a cookbook judge for the 2011 James Beard nominations. (Note: Judges can reveal that they are reviewers but not what cookbook category they judged.) "What an honor, it would be a pleasure," was our exact response. This will be fun and relatively easy, right?

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James Beard Foundation

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​Moments ago, the James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for the 2011 JBF Awards, often called the Oscars of the food world. Los Angeles nominees include:
--Michael Cimarusti (Providence) for Best Chef (Pacific)
--Suzanne Goin (Lucques) for Outstanding Chef
--Dahlia Narvaez (Osteria Mozza) for Outstanding Pastry Chef.

Announced in February, the semi-finalists included several additional Los Angeles contenders who did not make it to the finals...

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James Beard Foundation

​Less than half an hour ago, the James Beard Foundation announced the nominees for the 2011 JBF Journalism Awards, and the Weekly's own Jonathan Gold earned two nods (for Food-Related Feature and for the M.F.K. Fisher award) as did Los Angeles magazine restaurant critic Patric Kuh, who was nominated for the Craig Claiborne and M.F.K. Fisher awards. Gold is also one of the 2011 Who's Who inductees.

​The awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 6th at Espace in New York.

Full list after the jump. Here are the highlights:
Group Food Blog: City of Ate (Dallas Observer), The Epi-Log (Epicurious), Grub Street New York (New York Magazine)
Individual Food Blog: Politics of the Plate (Barry Estabrook), Poor Man's Feast (Elissa Altman), Red Cook (Kian Lam Kho)
Food-Related Feature: Jonathan Gold (LA Weekly), Dan Koeppel (Saveur), Corby Kummer (TheAtlantic.com)
Craig Claiborne: Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl (Minnesota Monthly), Patric Kuh (Los Angeles), Adam Platt (New York)
M.F.K. Fisher: Colman Andrews (Departures), Jonathan Gold (LA Weekly), Patric Kuh (Saveur)

One more note: "Good Grain: Baking with Whole Grain Flours," written by Kim Boyce and Squid Ink editor Amy Scattergood, was a finalist in the Baking and Dessert Cookbook category. Sweet.

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​Award season is approaching again, and we don't just mean the Oscars. The nominations for Food & Wine's best new chef award opened yesterday, and now the James Beard Foundation has announced the semifinalists for their restaurant and chef awards. Here's the complete (very long) list.

The Beard Foundation will be live tweeting the nominee announcement on March 21. The awards are announced in May. For a list of Los Angeles semifinalists, which includes quite an impressive number of chefs in the Best Chef: Pacific category, turn the page.

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James Beard Foundation

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If you missed the James Beard Celebrity Chef Tour stop in L.A. last summer, not to worry; the culinary powerhouse is headed back to Southern California, this time bringing with it a weekend full of cooking demonstrations, extravagant meals and even a few Food Network stars, thrown in for good measure. Interested? Mark your calendar for January 29 and 30, when the James Beard House hosts its Friends of James Beard Benefit at Zov's Bistro in Tustin.

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Food Network

Nate Appleman

​It seems like Chipotle has finally figured out how to get some of us to walk through its doors. No, not by dreaming up a well-placed ad campaign. Not by being in seemingly every mall in America. Not even by serving natural meats and reducing sodium and supporting local farms.

Update: Thanks to ZagatBuzz, which has installed a new Guest Blog column and given the inaugural post to Nate Appleman. Appleman has chosen to blog, perhaps unsurprisingly, on his move to burritoland. To quote the chef:

"I'm not sure what this job or the future will hold, but this is one of the most exciting things I have ever been apart of (and, no, Chipotle is not owned by McDonald's)... With this new job, I'm a part of an organization that can truly make a difference by serving food with integrity to millions of people, as well as supporting numerous farmers and ranchers that are growing vegetables and raising animals the right way. I'm involved in all of that, right down to being part of the 25,000 Chipotle employees that work their asses off to help change food culture as we know it. The bottom line is, I've always been a big thinker and a doer at heart, but, damn, you can't argue that this really is the essence of making a difference. Now, finally, I can speak about making a difference with the same reverence and righteousness.

The original post, published December 13th...

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James Beard Foundation

A Coveted James Beard Award

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In barely the blink of an eye, food blogging has exploded. Sometimes it seems that hardly an accountant, construction worker, or production assistant is without a personal blog detailing their relationship with food, or at the very least, the organic heirloom tomato salad they bought from a food truck for lunch. While some may call food blogging an actual profession, the art of putting pen to paper, or rather digits to keyboard, is perhaps better described as an unprofitable hobby. But low bank balances aside, food bloggers can rest assured that their work is finally being recognized; this time, by the James Beard Foundation Awards.

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