James Beard awards

According to NYMag.com, the "long list" of nominees for best chef submitted to the judges for the southern US includes Jim Gerhardt of Limestone, Edward Lee of 610 and Todd Richards, The Oakroom's Iron Chef.

Other local Beard nominees include Basa for best new restaurant. Oakroom for best service and Julian Van Winkle for outstanding wine and sprits professional.

[Robin Garr]

According to NYMag.com, the "long list" of nominees for best chef submitted to the judges for the southern US includes Jim Gerhardt of Limestone, Edward Lee of 610 and Todd Richards, The Oakroom's Iron Chef.

Okay, I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks under the impression that it was confidential, but since the publicity is out, here's the official list of Louisville-area nominees for the 2008 Beard Awards. Actually, I guess they should be called "pre-nominees," as judges (including your humble correspondent) will vote for selections from these "long lists" to reach the final, shorter slate of nominees for the awards. That slate will be announced March 28.

BEST CHEF: SOUTHEAST
Jim Gerhardt, Limestone, Louisville, KY
Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Louisville, KY
Ouita Michel, Holly Hill Inn, Midway, KY
Todd Richards, Oak Room, Louisville, KY

OUTSTANDING SERVICE
Oak Room, Seelbach Hotel, Louisville, KY

BEST NEW RESTAURANT
Basa, Louisville, KY

OUTSTANDING WINE AND SPIRITS PROFESSIONAL
Julian Van Winkle, Pappy Van Winkle, Louisville, KY

Best wishes to all these, although I'm disappointed to see that some local nominations didn't make the list and no Louisville institutions listed under some national categories in which I know for a fact that there were nominations: Best Restaurateur, Best Rising Young Chef, Best Wine Program, etc.

[Robin Garr]

According to NYMag.com, the "long list" of nominees for best chef submitted to the judges for the southern US includes Jim Gerhardt of Limestone, Edward Lee of 610 and Todd Richards, The Oakroom's Iron Chef.

Following up on the above, it should be noted that Kentucky is in the BEST CHEF SOUTHEAST category. BEST CHEF SOUTH covers the deeper south tier of states.

In BEST CHEF GREAT LAKES, there are two nominees in Indiana and one from Cincinnati:

Steve Oakley, Oakley's, Indianapolis, IN
David Tallent, Restaurant Tallent, Bloomington, IN
Jean-Robert De Cavel, Jean-Robert at Pigall's, Cincinnati, OH

Question re Beard voting: Do you vote on all nominees, or just those from the South US section?

[Robin Garr]

Question re Beard voting: Do you vote on all nominees, or just those from the South US section?

It works like this, Gary: All judges may vote throughout the ballot, but are under a moral commitment not to vote for any candidate uniess they are familiar with the nominee and, in the case of restaurants, have eaten there. As a result, most judges end up voting primarily within their region.

It does seem to me that this process might work against smaller cities, but I expect there's some kind of proportional mechanism to even that out a bit.

Winners were supposed be announced this morning. Any word on our chefs?

Nothing on the web page yet - (you probably checked it, too). I'll look later in the day and link if I see the short list.

The James Beard Foundation Awards

short list will be available after 12:00pm EST.

[Robin Garr]

Winners were supposed be announced this morning. Any word on our chefs?

No email from JBF here just as yet, unless I missed it! I'll take another look.

...no one from Louisville.

Here are the final nominations:

http://www.jbfawards.com/content/2008-nominees

too bad that no one locally made the list.

yum...the slanted door and campanile...just seeing those names makes me hungry. those are two of my all-time favorite restaurants.