No Kentucky James Beard winners ...

[Robin Garr]

The James Beard Awards have come and gone, with no Louisville winners again this year. I have some theories about what we're doing wrong. A little less visible paid PR; it doesn't impress this NYC-based organization; and a little more authenticity, seeking to express our own unique voice rather than chasing the trendy "southern" meme from a border city with a Midwestern accent. That might help, but it's going to be a slow process.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/dinin ... share&_r=0

This isn't something I ever really followed, but another weakness I saw after reading the article is that the voters are mostly journalists who are members of the James Beard Foundation. That in itself seems like it would skew the results to cities like New York and San Francisco. How many of those people spend any real amount of time in Louisville? Derby week wouldn't really be representative.

[Robin Garr]

This isn't something I ever really followed, but another weakness I saw after reading the article is that the voters are mostly journalists who are members of the James Beard Foundation. That in itself seems like it would skew the results to cities like New York and San Francisco. How many of those people spend any real amount of time in Louisville? Derby week wouldn't really be representative.

Well, they do have regional judges, Richard. Matter of fact, I'm one. So the Southeast Region has judges in Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville, etc., and as a result the lists of regional semifinalists and finalists are pretty well informed. They have to be voted on nationally, though, and I'm sure there's some between-the-coasts influence there. I've also heard hints that some of our folks over the years got into a bad habit of having their PR drums pounded loudly but not particularly well. This doesn't impress New Yorkers.

Robin, I think your thesis is correct. We do seem to have our fair share of chefs invited to do one-offs at the Beard House, but we are consistently overlooked for the regional (and national) awards. We have one or two "big name" chefs locally with pretty good PR machines whom one would think would crack into the list at some point.

[Robin Garr]

We have one or two "big name" chefs locally with pretty good PR machines whom one would think would crack into the list at some point.

The "chatter" I hear is that the PR approach, whether big-city professional or smaller-metro amateurish, tends to work against a chef's hopes, because it's so obviously inauthentic. They look for actions, not words ...