Awards

Kahan, Beran and Next, Aviary and Violet Hour Nom’d For Beards; Many Media Nominees For Chicago

If you really, really want to know who’s been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award this year, you can get the info second by second at this Twitter address or this live feed starting at around 1:30 Chicago time. If you think you might be nominated and can’t bear to hear the sentence pronounced (the exact situation we were in last year), or if you simply have a life or a job and can wait to hear what’s going on, you can go live your life while we compile Chicago nominees here as they’re announced. Who do we think will be up for one? Heck if we know. The most talked-about new restaurant on earth, Next (Best New Restaurant), and its chef Dave Beran (Rising Star Chef) seem safe bets, indeed if they’re not nominated that will be a major story, but beyond that, it’s hard to say— Matthew Kirkley of L2O and David Posey of Blackbird are certainly possibilities and worthy, but so are a lot of other chefs in other cities. The Aviary is so innovative it also seems a likely nominee for Outstanding Bar Program, and we’d love to see Carrie Nahabedian finally jump from Best Chef Great Lakes winner to plain old Best Chef nominee. But who knows? And as for the media awards, we have no idea— offhand we’re not sure what Chicago media work stands out as much this year as the nominees of the last few years from people like Monica Eng, Mike Sula and Kevin Pang. Anyway, we’ll update below (and link to Chicago media nominees) when they start making the announcements.

Chicago nominees for media and book awards:

Food-Related Column: Josh Ozersky (http://Time.com); Kevin Pang (Chicago Trib); Lettie Teague (WSJ) #jbfa

Pang up for three pieces, including this one on supper clubs.

Health & Well-Belling: Janet Rausa Fuller (Chicago Sun-Times); Maureen O’Hagan (The Seattle Times); Melinda Wenner Moyer (EatingWell)

Two for WBEZ! Radio Show/Audio Webcast: Fear of Frying: Culinary Nightmares; From Bread Lines to Revolution; The Sporkful #jbfa

Steve Dolinsky nominated again! Television Segment: ABC News Nightline (ABC); Good Enough to Eat (CBS); The Hungry Hound (ABC 7 Chicago) #jbfa

We (personally) are nominated: Television or Video Webcast Special/Documentary: A Matter of Taste; Lidia Celebrates America; Sky Full of Bacon #jbfa This is the nominated piece:

Ex-Chicagoan dept.: TV Food Personality/Host: Ted Allen, Sara Moulton, Ina Garten #jbfa

Also: Television Program, In Studio or Fixed Location: Chopped; Essential Pépin; Simply Ming #jbfa

We don’t believe any of the book nominees are Chicagoans, but if you recognize one we missed, please post below.

Food Awards

The Aviary and The Violet Hour both nominated for Bar Program.

Here are the noms for our new beverage category, Outstanding Bar Program: The Aviary, Bar Agricole, Pegu Club, PDT, The Violet Hour #jbfa

Charlie Trotter, as announced earlier, is Humanitarian of the Year. Grant Achatz among Who’s Who inductees.

Great Lakes Best Chef: Michael Carlson, Schwa, Stephanie Izard, Girl & the Goat, Bruce Sherman, North Pond, Andrew Zimmerman, Sepia.

Rising Star Chef: Dave Beran, Next

Mindy Segal nominated AGAIN for pastry chef, will she FINALLY win!

“Next, for Best New Restaurant…” Next indeed!

Spiaggia and Topolobampo both nominated for outstanding service.

Outstanding Chef: Paul Kahan.

Kahan, Beran and Next, Aviary and Violet Hour Nom’d For Beards; Many Media