Restaurants
As one would expect, New York and San Francisco dominated the top awards, garnering Outstanding Chef nods in NY for David Chang (Momofuku Ssam Bar) and Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park) and in SF for Gary Danko (Restaurant Gary Danko). Outstanding Restaurant nominees include New York's Balthazar and Blue Hill and San Francisco's Boulevard.
D.C. was well-represented in the Mid-Atlantic region chef category, with nominations for Johnny Monis (Komi), Peter Pastan (Obelisk) and Vikram Sunderam (Rasika), as well as across-the-river chef Cathal Armstrong (Restaurant Eve in Alexandria). Also honored from D.C. was Fiola, in the Best New Restaurant category.
Notable nominees from other parts of the country include Stephanie Izard (Girl & the Goat) in the Great Lakes region (which I've heard is very good), April Bloomfield in New York City (The Spotted Pig), Hugh Acheson in the Southeast (Five and Ten).
Books
Top Chef judge Hugh Acheson scored an American Cooking nomination for his A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen.
A personal favorite, Jeni Britton Bauer's Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, was nominated in the Desserts and Baking category.
Nominated in the Professional POV category is the much talked about Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold with Chris Young and Maxime Bile. Also nominated in this category was the cookbook for last year's Best Restaurant winner, Eleven Madison Park by its chef Daniel Humm.
In the Beverage category, I was surprised that the PDT Cocktail Book didn't get a nod (although PDT itself was nominated for Outstanding Bar Program), but pleased to see Brad Thomas Parsons' Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas.
In the Writing and Literature category, I was pleased to see nominations for two books I've read in the last year: Chef Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones and Butter (Hamilton, who helms the East Village restaurant Prune, won New York City Chef last year), and Tom Mueller's Extra Virginity, which I wrote about extensively during olive oil week.
Journalism
Gabrielle Hamilton received a second nomination for her Bon Appetit essay "Blood, Bones & Baked Eggplant."
Sadly, neither The New York Times or The Washington Post received any nominations this year, although Washingtonian writer Todd Kliman received a nomination for his article "The Problem with Authenticity" in the first issue of Lucky Peach.
In the Individual Food Blogs category, the nominees are Bunkycooks, Cannelle Et Vanille and Poor Man's Feast.
Too bad about the Times and Post! I checked out the nominated blogs. They look cool. The photography at Cannelle Et Vanille is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI envy those blogs and their beautiful photography. I'm making an effort to improve, but I'm nowhere near that yet.
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