The 2012 James Beard Foundation Awards
On Monday evening we attended the James Beard Foundation Awards gala to honor the best chefs and restaurants in the country. What is often referred to as “the Oscars of the food world” lived up to its expectations. Hosted at Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center) and emceed by Alton Brown, this was a food star studded event complete with black tie, red carpet and paparazzi. Sipping champagne at Lincoln Center with Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Jaques Pépin may only happen once in my lifetime, so I am happy to have been a part of the evening.
Standing amongst such talented and passionate people was inspiring. Some are legends for their contribution to the landscape of the American culinary scene and others for their charitable work. Charlie Trotter received the Humanitarian of the Year award for his extraordinary philanthropic work and Wolfgang Puck received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Wolfgang Puck had quite an entertaining story to tell about his life and was surprisingly humorous.
As an Atlantan, I was thrilled to see the award for Best Chef Southeast go to not one, but two of our great local chefs. Chefs Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta and Hugh Acheson of Five and Ten in Athens, Georgia tied for the honor and both took home the coveted James Beard Foundation Award. A big congratulations go out to them! If y’all heard a roaring scream in the back left of Avery Fisher Hall, it just might have been us supporting the hometown boys. 😉
I look forward to the continued evolution of the culinary arts. It seems to change with each passing day as new influences shape our food culture. There are movements underway which portend a shift in how we think about food. In the South in particular, as “local and sustainable” and heritage ingredients are seamlessly incorporated in to our everyday lives, new themes are emerging and I am excited to be a voice in this process.
I love to follow the awards, Portland has a few contenders each time…
CONGRATS on your nomination – that is huge and a big success in itself! thanks for the review, this was a fun read!
Hi Kris,
Thank you so much. Yes, there were a lot of great nominees from the Portland area. I loved it when I visited last year. Great food and wine town!
Gwen
Congratulations on your nomination! It’s so great to see a quality blog, like yours, getting the recognition it deserves.
Hi Pamela,
Thanks so much! It’s hard to believe it wasn’t all that long ago when we were at Camp Blogaway!
Hope to see you again soon. 🙂
Gwen
Thank you for sharing photos from this amazing event and congratulations again on your nomination. How exciting! It’s so true how much things have changed in the culinary world and I wonder where it will be five or 10 years from now….
Hi Stacey,
Thank you so much. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next ten years. The change has been so dramatic in the past ten, it’s truly remarkable. Who knew there would be 6 million food bloggers in addition to all the television hype, cookbooks and food stars?!
Gwen
What an absolute HONOR! I’m so impressed with your blog and all the work you put into it! Camp Blogaway seems like a lifetime ago, but so happy to have met you there! Keep up the good work!
Hi Liz,
Thank you so much for your comments. Camp Blogaway does seem like a lifetime ago! Hard to believe how exciting things have been since that time just two years ago!
Maybe we will meet again at another conference in the future.
Gwen
You looked wonderful, which is ever so important and it’s absolutely thrilling that you made that short list!
Hi Susan,
Fashion comes first. 😉 It was fun to dress up and go to the big night in NYC. Very exciting.
I agree. Very happy to have made it to the short list and it is still hard to believe some days.
BTW, I appreciate your support over the years!
Gwen
How fantastic! What tremendous recognition of your blog. It doesn’t get any better than this. Well deserved.
Hi Suddie,
Thank you for the comment and for being one of our most faithful readers. So glad that you found me through Beamer. 🙂 I have enjoyed getting to know you.
Gwen
Congratulations again for your (first?) well deserved nomination! I’m sure it’s going to happen again!
Hi Ray,
Thank you and yes, this was the first nomination. It would certainly be an honor to make it to this point again. Fingers crossed for next year.
Gwen
Congratulations Gwen & Roger on this wonderful nomination!
You both deserve it! Your hard work and fantastic passion for
your Food & Travel Blog paid off.
Best Wishes,
Jane N.
Hi Jane,
Thank you for the comments and your support. It has been a wild ride since November 2009 and there is lots more to come in 2012!
Gwen
What a weekend! And I love your picture outside of the gala ~ beautiful! Keep doing what you do and I know you’ll be back (second time’s the charm).
Hi Lucy,
It was a very inspiring weekend. How many times to that many culinary legends come together in one place?
Thank you for all of your support and we hope to continue on with more exciting adventures on the blog!
Gwen
Sounds like such an incredible evening! It is often hard not to be disappointed, even when you know it’s great just to be there. You were in fabulous company though, and a win would have been well deserved! Here’s to hoping for a win next year!
Hi Jen,
Thank you so much. It was a bit disappointing, but I am so happy and honored to even be on the short list. It is very exciting.
We hope to keep doing what we have been doing and maybe it will happen again. 🙂
Gwen
Wow! How exciting that must’ve been! You looked absolutely smashing! Congrats again on being nominated—next year will be the one! 🙂
Hi Donna,
Thank you so much for your comments. I really appreciate your support.
Gwen
It is a tremendous honor to have been nominated and I am thrilled that your blog was among the ones to be considered. What an amazing experience it must have been to hob nob with the culinary elites, that is a prize in itself. You look stunning in that beautiful black gown!