The James Beard Awards nominees were just announced and Chicago made a pretty solid showing across the board. The award ceremony and gala takes place in New York on May 9 and Eater will be in the house.
With all the accolades Girl & The Goat has received both locally and nationally, it's not a huge surprise Stephanie Izard's restaurant was nominated in the Best New Restaurant category alongside ABC Kitchen (NY), Benu (SF), Menton (Boston) and Torrisi Italian Specialties (NY), but it's pretty damn exciting nonetheless.
Four of the five chefs in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category are from Chicago: Michael Carlson (Schwa), Curtis Duffy (Avenues), Bruce Sherman (North Pond) and Paul Virant (Vie). The fifth is Alex Young from Ann Arbor's Zingerman's Roadhouse.
Topolobampo was nominated for Outstanding Service, an award Alinea snagged last year. Paul Kahan came up in the Outstanding Chef category alongside Jose Andres, Gary Danko, Suzanne Goin and Charles Phan. And Rich Melman got a nod in the Outstanding Restaurateur category.
Blackbird's Patrick Fahy and Hot Chocolate's Mindy Segal both got nods for Outstanding Pastry Chef, a category Segal has been nominated in many times and has never won. She's like the Susan Lucci of the Beard Awards; maybe this is her year. The Publican was nominated for Outstanding Restaurant Graphics.
We were a little disappointed that Tru's Anthony Martin didn't get recognized in the Rising Star Chef of the Year award.
On the journalism side, the Chicago Tribune's Monica Eng and the Reader's Michael Gebert and Julia Thiel were nominated. Congrats to all the nominees!
· All James Beard Coverage on Eater Chicago [~EChi~]