Jean Georges, the flagship of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, won the James Beard Foundation’s outstanding restaurant award last week, and Drew Nieporent, a partner in
Nobu and Corton in TriBeCa, was named outstanding restaurateur. Dan Barber of Blue Hill in Greenwich Village and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester County won the outstanding chef award. The annual awards presentation was held at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The rising star chef of the year award went to Nate Appleman of A16 in San Francisco, the only chef or restaurant outside of New York to win a national award. Momofuku Ko in the East Village was named best new restaurant. Gina DePalma of Babbo was named outstanding pastry chef and Dale DeGroff was named best wine and spirits professional. Daniel won outstanding service and Le Bernardin won outstanding wine service. Except for the rising star and new restaurant awards, all the national awards go to chefs, owners and restaurants that have been in the business for five years, or, in the case of outstanding restaurant and restaurateur, 10 years. Those winning regional awards as best chef were: Michael Symon of Lola in Cleveland Jose Garces of Amada in Philadelphia Tim McKee of La Belle Vie in Minneapolis Gabriel Kreuther of the Modern in Manhattan Rob Evans of Hugo’s of Portland, Maine Maria Hines of Tilth in Seattle Paul Bartolotta of Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, Miss., Mike Lata of Fig in Charleston, S.C., and Douglas Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg, Calif. Totonno’s pizzeria in Coney Island, Brooklyn, was one of five restaurants named America’s Classics. In the Beard foundation’s media awards, the cookbook of the year award went to “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes,” by Jennifer McLagan (Ten Speed Press).
— Nick Fox, The New York Times